Types Of Bacteria and Other Germs Found On The Toilet Seats

<...Are they harmful?..> Anything has the potential to cause harm.

Try this.

i've googled enough, the answers vary from website to website. I want a proper list and please bother reading the rest of the questions.

The forum cannot know that unless stated beforehand.

I'm sure the answer also varies from toilet to toilet.

Any bacteria - and other germs, presumably viruses - that are associated with the human beings in question could be present on the toilet seat.

Enteric bacteria are the usual suspects when it comes to health concerns around toilets so you may narrow your search and get a "proper list" of those perhaps.

With regards to the question of heated toilet seats. Bacteria whether pathogenic or simply enteric generally do best around 37 C. However none of them would be killed by the range of temperature from room temp 20 C to the temp of a heated toilet seat I would guess??? maybe ?? 40 C? Or how hot do they get? . Every species has its minimum and maximum temperature for growth as well as time/temperature for killing it with heat, so I am just generalizing about the ballpark figures.

i've googled enough, the answers vary from website to website.

Maybe different websites are checking different toilet seats?

Wow!

All types will be found on any of these locations somewhere.

Licking a toilet seat should not be on your list of things to try!

They multiply at all temperatures, but if it is warmer it would be faster.

Heated toilets seats? Outdoor toilets maybe, else you have other problems to worry about.

Wait and see if others pop up with more googeling

This should be fun!

If this is your problem

I rather doubt that bacteria from toilet seats is the source.

Are there a lot of toilet seat bacterial issues in India?

Are there a lot of toilet seat bacterial issues in India

I don't see any clue on OP profile and post, that suggests OP belongs to India.

if you think that's bad,... check and take a swab off your cell phone.

Man, you've got that right!

Your Cell Phone Is 10 Times Dirtier Than a Toilet Seat.

Hey,... I only repeat what I read... Now, I didn't even start with how filthy money is...

And that, boys and girls, is why you should never sit on your phone when going to the bathroom.

Sometimes you just have to tell people,... they're using it wrong.

regarding: "And that, boys and girls, is why you should never s_it on your phone when going to the bathroom."

Uh, did you omit an "h" somewhere in that statement?

Just keeping it clean.

@ BiS, thanks!

...and after swabbing your cell phone, check out the money in your wallet.

And do not forget the computer keyboard!

That would be a rather long list indeed...

..."There are typically 40 million bacterial cells in a gram of soil and a million bacterial cells in a millilitre of fresh water. There are approximately 5×10³⁰ bacteria on Earth,^[5] forming a biomass which exceeds that of all plants and animals.^[6]"...

There are at least three categories of temperature that different bacteria prefer, so a warmer environment may favor some types of bacteria and discourage others, but the opposite is true as well....

..."Bacteria may grow across a wide range of temperatures, from very cold to very hot. A mesophile is an organism that grows best in moderate temperature, neither too hot nor too cold. All human pathogens are mesophiles. Organisms that prefer extreme environments are known as extremophiles: those that prefer cold environments are termed psychrophilic, those preferring warmer temperatures are termed thermophilic or thermotrophs and those thriving in extremely hot environments are hyperthermophilic."...

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-microbiology/chapter/temperature-and-microbial-growth/

..." there are a few infections that you really can pick up from an unsanitary porcelain throne, though the odds are still pretty low. But if you're at the right place (sitting on a toilet seat) at the right time (when the seat's contaminated with feces) it could happen (if you don't wash and dry your hands thoroughly).

E.coli (Escherichia coli) is fecal-borne bacteria, and when you're talking about toilets, you're in the right neighborhood for contamination

Gastrointestinal viruses such as norovirus (which is the bane of many a cruise ship crew and passenger), also cause stomach distress, and similar to E. coli, they are easily transmitted from person to person. Norovirus has been found contaminating nonporous surfaces, including toilet seats, for as long as two weeks (and that's despite those surfaces having been cleaned)

Shigella bacteria passes very easily among people, especially when you forget to wash your hands (or if you're among the 95 percent of people who don't correctly wash their hands). These bacterium causes shigellosis

Streptococcus is a common bacteria found

Staph (Staphylococcus) likes to hang around, and it can contaminate a nonporous surface for longer than you may expect. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), for example, can live on a toilet seat -- and any nonporous part of a toilet -- for more than two months. And it only takes as few as three seconds for it to transmit from a seat to your skin [source: Clinical Infectious Diseases]. However, despite the bad news about its longevity, the truth about staph on toilet seats is this: You're more likely to expose yourself to it by using your cell phone than you are by sitting on toilet seat. More than half of all our phones carry the bacteria

Influenza and other viruses can live for as many as two or three days on nonporous surfaces, including your phone, the remote control and (no surprise) the toilet seat -- and some of these viral strains may live even longer.

Still not convinced that the toilet's safe? Then here's what you need to do: Skip those paper seat covers and carry antiseptic alcohol wipes with you. Wipe the seat before you sit. It's the only effective way to be sure you've killed staph, as well as other bacteria that may cause boils or skin infections."...

https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/infectious/5-diseases-toilet.htm

$6 for a 100....cheap insurance

Thank you, this helps a lot.

Seems like the more we worry about this stuff, the sicker we get. When I was a kid back on our farm, our hundred year old hand dug well was covered over with a couple of slab rocks and a hump of dirt. It was right in the middle of a fenced chute that would guide the dairy cows into the barn for milking. They crapped all over the place out there. Nobody gave it any thought, and we didn't get sick, at least no more than the town kids in school. Years later, in order to be able to sell the farm house, we had to have a well drilled, (and a septic system put in that had a leach field instead of a line into a nearby ditch), and it was interesting to see all the rules, like no livestock within 50 feet of the well head. Back then we had immune systems. Drank out of puddles when we got thirsty (on the ten mile walk to school, said the old curmudgeon).

Okay, so was it compulsory or voluntary that the well was dug exclusively by the hand of a centenarian?

It would have been voluntary or paid work. The well was a hundred years old but I don't think the digger was. But I wasn't there.

jhammond

They will be the same ones as found on dishcloths, tea towels and an uncountable number of other places, including the air that animals breathe.

Microbial multiplication can be halted by reducing the temperature below 0degC, which is a feature of common domestic deep freezer equipment used to preserve foodstuffs, or by raising it above 60degC.

Animals have a remarkable array of microbial defence systems, which, unsurprisingly, cease to function upon death.

Viable microbes have been returned from man-made equipment retrieved from the surface of the Moon, their having survived the near-vacuum on the lunar surface with no protection from solar and cosmic radiation.

...which puts microbes into the category of "very successful life forms".

It depends on the person,.. if you do clean your house regularly,.. normally the bathroom is one of the cleans rooms in the house. And when it comes to bacteria, it's the kitchen that's the laboratory culture.

We keep being told about all the bugs around the house but, for the majority of the time, we live with them quite happily. Nowhere is free of germs, in a completely sterile environment we become the dirty object by virtue of the number of bacteria on our bodies.

On a side note, I'm sure I read recently that bacterial wipes only clean a surface for a few minutes before the bacteria reform.

I agree, to a certain degree, exposure to these 'bugs' is actually good for you because it can stress and strengthen our immune system.

This is quite an understatement....the truth is we wouldn't exist without bacteria, they manufactured the oxygen that made human life possible...they also protect the skin against infection and aid in the digestion of our food....Humans and bacteria have a symbiotic relationship...if fact most bacteria is supportive of good health in humans...Without bacteria we would die....

This is quite an understatement....

Yes, it is,... growing up on the farm, we would eat out in the fields during baling.

If we dropped a sandwich, we'd pick it up and if there was something on it dirt, grass or an insect, we'd brush it off and eat it.

At my shop, we were out side eating, and this happened where I dropped my food... the secretary literal started to dry heave and couldn't believe I did this.

I have to say that at the time, not only was my immune system healthy, I rarely got sick and injuries that were open, I healed rather quickly. Not so much now.

We had a cookout at work. I took my pocket knife out and sliced something I was eating. A city girl asked me how I could use that dirty thing on my food.

I didn't tell her that as a kid I drank from the same creek that cows drank from and the cows go whenever the urge moves them, even standing in the creek drinking. I used to pull turnips, radishes etc out of the ground and eat them too.

Pulling fresh produce out of the garden was the best.

When fruit was in season such as strawberries, wild strawberries or raspberries. We’d make a meal out of them, mom would bake loafs upon loafs of bread, it was this, Fresh raw milk (poured on the berries), fresh bread and butter....

the people with a weak stomach, Dont know about the requirements that a certain number of insects, or parts of insects like grasshopper legs, is allowed in the canneries from the vegetables we eat.

i don’t think that changed.

Some of you may have seen the recent "bug counts" for various airports. The worst spot with the highest microbe count---was the touch screen where you check in. Nearly everyone has to touch it and probably does not get cleaned unless it gets so smeary you cannot read the numbers.

I thought that was an interesting revelation. Soon you may see those wet wipes sitting there for those having the concerns.

This question has been around for many years. I remember as a child traveling through rural Georgia (USA). Using a toilet seat that folded up into an enclosed back case that had blue light emanating from it. I was told it was UV light; now UV light is routinely used to destroy pathogens [by modifying their DNA to prevent reproduction] in water systems and hospital/nursing home circulating air. Hope this helps.

Unless you have an OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, people should not care much about how "dirty" a "clean" toilet seat is. We live immersed in an "ocean" of potentially harmful life forms constituted by just some protein material (Prions) a bit of RNA or DNA (viruses) animal and plant cells like fungus and yeasts... the good news is that evolution provided us with amazing tools to deal with them: a limited visual perception prevents us from freaking out for seeing ALL that is to be seen, and an incredible immune system that keeps us sound... and that´s it!

Now, if we want to get paranoid, here are some things way much dirtier than a toilet seat: hotel room remote controls, touchscreens and airplane folding tables

Harmful germs are around us everywhere we go; toilet seats, churches, hospitals, supermarkets to mention a few. If we tried to avoid germs, we would never leave home. I read that a dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's mouth.The reason, I believe is the dog has an immune system that protects and that is why dogs can eat food that is on the ground or buried in the ground or in a garbage pail and not get sick. If we did the same, our immune system would not be able to cope with it. When a dog or other animal gets sick it's because they caught a human germ. We often see pictures and videos of a human "kissing" a dog That may be more harmful to the dog than to the human.

"... When a dog or other animal gets sick it's because they caught a human germ. We often see pictures and videos of a human "kissing" a dog That may be more harmful to the dog than to the human. ..."

I don't think it is categorically true that when an animal gets sick they have necessarily caught a "human germ". There are definitely contagious animal diseases that do not originate in humans and do not affect humans.

I am no germaphobe, I don't run to rinse my mouth if a dog slips me the tongue on the sly.....but it might ne advisable if you don't really know enough about the dog.

Dog mouths generally could only be considered clean if you consider the occasional hookworm roundworm and tapeworm to be particularly fastidious guests. Paracitic worms are transmissable via pet saliva.

Cats can be especially dangerous with their propensity to carry and transmit t gondii. Pregnant women and children should be protected from exposure as increased incidence of mental disorders is correlated.

Maybe dogs can catch schitzophrenia from human saliva, I don't know, but even if the risk were similar, the danger is not comparable.

You have to remember that exposure to "germs" constantly reinforces our immune system and prevents us coming down at the slightest "invasion."
That's why "hobo's" never get sick. Apart from the whisky killing all the germs, a reporter asked them and they say they have never been sick.
However, the simplest task I perform is to wash before preparing a meal and never use a kitchen cloth - only new paper towel - and cook everything until it has reached a reasonable temp.
If you are in doubt. Microwave it.
I have never been sick after microwaving or eating my own food but I get sick all the time from Bain Marie food and I will NEVER buy IT AGAIN. I was sick for 3 days from Indian Bain Marie food and I learnt a very big lesson. It is filled with bacteria.
Your body is smarter than you are.

They are exactly the same ones that are found on a used tea towel, though usually in significantly smaller numbers.