Protect yourself from ‘toilet plume’

more on that later), the toilet seat, the floor and the toilet and door handles.

We’ve known about toilet plume for some time. A new study suggests potentially infectious particles continue to be airborne for about a minute after each flush, and toilets can continue to generate an infectious plume several flushes after the original contaminated flush.

What about coronavirus?

In general, contact with contaminated surfaces is not believed to be a primary method of coronavirus infection, but this has not been studied enough. While shared bathrooms can increase the spread of gastrointestinal infections, we don’t know how bathrooms play a role in transmission of a respiratory virus, like the coronavirus, that has also been identified in stool.

We also don’t know the risk — if any — posed by coronavirus aerosols in the toilet plume, so admittedly there are a lot of unknowns.

What we do know is that there are certain bathroom behaviors that will help protect you from many nefarious microbes.

The best defenses against bathroom contagions are a mask, social distancing, limiting the surfaces you touch with your hands and hand hygiene. Here’s a handy checklist for shared bathroom use.

• Consider larger bathrooms with multiple stalls because they have more air circulation.

• If someone exits a bathroom stall or a single bathroom right before you, wait at least 60 seconds before entering — especially if the toilet seat lid is up, signifying more plume.

Skip the paper toilet seat covers. They are likely placebo — we have no idea if they offer protection from bacteria or viruses — and they could easily be contaminated with toilet plume, so touching them with your hands could be a source of infectious transmission.

If you need to dispose of a menstrual product in one of those little containers, touch the lid with a wad of toilet paper and sanitize your hands after. Those lids are among the worst surfaces in the bathroom stall: touched by many unwashed hands and showered with infectious plume.

If the toilet has a lid, close it before you flush so it traps the plume. Think of the lid as a mask for the toilet. If an automated toilet is flushing, step back because those things spray.

How you dry your hands after washing probably doesn’t matter — paper towels or dryers are likely equal. But do avoid shared, reusable hand towels.

Get out of there quickly. Chatting in bathrooms is the new smoking in bathrooms — it’s a relic of the past. If you have to open a door to exit, use hand sanitizer after you leave.

What if one isn’t nearby?

First, try to avoid needing a bathroom. If you’re heading out, modify your water intake. Remember, eight glasses of water a day is a myth.

For women, you can try squeezing and relaxing your pelvic floor muscles very quickly (each contraction and relaxation should take one to two seconds) five times. These are called quick flicks and will relax the bladder, suppressing the urge. This may buy you some time.

Going to the bathroom outdoors should be a last resort. If you are caught outdoors with no other option but the ground, try to get 200 feet away from foot traffic — and beware of plants like poison ivy! Use hand sanitizer when you’re done.

And airplane bathrooms?

Airplane bathrooms are some of the worst. On a long flight, they may go a long time without cleaning; they’re also cramped and the turbulence may lead to water or urine spray.

We don’t know the risk of catching COVID-19 after entering a small airplane bathroom right after someone who is infected with the coronavirus, but, you should wait to enter a bathroom that someone has just exited — especially if the toilet seat is up — and then get out fast.

The airplane industry likes to say its bathrooms are as clean as those in any office building. And they are probably as clean as any bathroom with a facility-to-user ratio of between 1:50 and 1:75, and where the bathroom and sink are in a small closet exposed to turbulence and cleaned every four to 18 hours.

And, please, have raise it).

I have one final request, particularly of women (up to 85 percent of whom report avoiding this): Please sit down. Sitting directly on the toilet seat isn’t going to put you at risk for an STI, so don’t hover. This often leaves urine on the seat, which means you or the next person has to wipe the toilet seat — the surface with the most exposure to the infectious plume — before sitting. This also goes for those who stand: Please raise the seat.

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To defend against bathroom contagions, wear a mask, wait one minute after others leave the restroom, avoid touching surfaces, wash your hands and limit your fluid intake before an outing.