bathroom hygiene news stories on Newser

You Don't Want to Know What's on Your Cellphone

Evann Gastaldo — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:30:05 CDT

If you’re reading this on your smartphone, you might want to go wash your hands now: A new study out of London finds that one out of six cellphones has fecal matter on it. UK researchers swabbed 390 mobile phones and the British hands that used them, and found that...

Hands-Free Faucets Have More Bacteria: Study

Kevin Spak — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:50:05 CDT

Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has removed all of its electronic hands-free faucets, and suggests that other hospitals consider doing the same, after a study discovered that— whoops— they’re actually less hygienic than old-fashioned manual ones. The study examined water samples from all Johns Hopkins' taps, and found that a...

96% Say You Wash Hands; Only 85% Actually Do

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:47:22 CDT

The good news: 96% of adults claim they always wash their hands in public restrooms, according to a phone survey. The bad news: only 85% of adults actually do, a new observational study finds. Despite the dirty people who are lying about their hygiene habits (and, perhaps, sharing a bread...

Five-Second Rule? Better Think Twice

John Johnson — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:42:11 CDT

The 5-second rule may or may not protect your stomach from nasty germs (here's a no , here's a yes ), but it probably depends more on location than duration, writes Julie Deardorff, who rounds up recent studies and talks to scientists for her Health Club column in the Chicago Tribune...

Ballpark Booty Call Rattles Fan, Young Son

Kevin Spak — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:35:00 CDT

Dr. Paul Nemeth got an unwelcome extra show when he took his 6-year-old son to the bathroom during Opening Day at US Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. As they were waiting in line for a urinal, Nemeth noticed a pair of feet twitching oddly under a stall....

Germaphobes Get a Handle on Bathrooms

Kevin Spak — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:40:43 CST

For germaphobes, few sights elicit as much terror as doorknob in a public bathroom. Sure, you washed your hands, “but then someone else didn’t wash their hands and you have to touch the same door handle,” explains the inventor of the SanitGrip, an L-shaped, elbow-operated handle that helps just-cleaned hands...

China Opens Giant Public Loo

Caroline Zimmerman — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:28:00 CDT

Time for tourists to ditch the Great Wall and head for the city of Chongqing in southwest China, which recently opened a startling new attraction: a sprawling public restroom. The free facilities lie behind an Egyptian facade that conceals 1,000 toilets spread over four stories and almost 33,000...

Physicist Wants To Wipe Out Toilet Paper

Dustin Lushing — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:20:20 CDT

A German physicist is engineering toilet paper that he says is more efficient and softer than the familiar white roll. TP visionary Siegfried Hustedt claims a single ply of his new paper—which can "hold its shape longer under pressure"—will be sturdy enough to do the job, not to...