BootsnAll Travel Community

will be off camping in UK soon, and Paris in a couple of weeks, and i need to protect myself and family from dirty toilets.. anyone help??
xxb

Charmin has little portable ones in small little packs...i got some as a joke gift for christmas check your grocery store or drug store in the little 'sample' areas (I think?)

Court

"Travelling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, 'I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.'" Lisa St. Aubin de Terán

Are they really necessary? I've heard a keyboard at an Internet Cafe is way dirtier and more dangerous to your health than toilet seats.

a pack of baby wipes. Those were used by US troop that were deplying to Mogadishu

BIG-TARGET>>>>> "...damned Brave, or a complete fool, but bloody Resourceful fellow" Captain 'Buck' Flashman, (father of Harry Flashman) Waterloo 1815

I seriously doubt that hauling along a supply of ass gaskets is really necessary, at least I hope they're not.

Hover over the toilet seat like a helicopter.

Can you tell me what you can catch from a toilet seat? I know in terms of germs they are pretty vile but what diseases do you actually get from them? In my 30 years I've never caught anything from a toilet seat (as far as I'm aware!)
I agree with jkomut or if that's not okay you could buy some antibacterial wipes (available from any chemist in the UK)

Ditto on never catching anything from a toilet seat. That said, if you see 'stuff' on the toilet seat, I don't recommend sitting on it.

I've seen Mythbusters and studies on germs on toilet seats. There are no more germs on a toilet seat than anywhere else in the house, unless someone has missed.

In fact, the most germy part of the house was not the bathroom, but the kitchen, where dirty hands met wet kitchen surfaces. If you want to clean off a toilet seat,or any other surface you're not going to eat from, try a 5 to 10% Clorox solution in a squeeze bottle, along with a disposable wipe.

Clorine kills nearly everything. This is why they use it in morgues and hospital surfaces. Its not a bad idea to give your kitchen a mild clorine solution washover, since thats where most harmful bacteria reside.

Five(0r ten, gotta look it up) drops of clorox in a gallon of water kills just about every water-borne infectant that a chemical can kill. Wait twenty minutes to an hour for the clorine to evaporate into the air before you drink it. It does NOT kill certain classes of parasites and chemical resistant bacteria.

If you're really concerned you could just hold it until you get back home.

quote:

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Originally posted by skobb:
If you're really concerned you could just hold it until you get back home.

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hahaha!!
That's my plan!

When I get to India, we get off the plane and straight onto a 24hour+ train journey to Mumbai. I'm sure I won't last the trip... my mate tells me the tiolet is a hole on the train floor...

bigles, if you get to goa search out some goan pig toilets....as you rest your arse over a wooden beam you'll hear the blighters jostling for position in a pit beneath you, ready for their breakfast as youre getting rid of yours.

....sometimes it felt like they're sucking the sh*t right out of you....

I've heard it's a myth that diseases can be contracted from toilet seats. But if the seat has dirt or worse on it, I generally use toilet paper and water to clean it off first. In my life I've never used a "toilet seat cover".

Ok here are the facts:

You cannot catch anything from a toilet unless the toilet is 'soiled' and you sit on the 'soil' with an open sore, wound...you get my drift here...
There are all sorts of nasty germs on the toilet, this is true, but there are all sorts of nasty germs on your own arse. So don't worry about them. Chances are the e.coli, hepititis is allready hanging out around that general area anyhow.

Also I'd like to add that toilet seat covers do not protect you from anything. These germs that have survivied for thousands of years know how to get through that thin little paper plenty faster then it will do you good.
If you feel like it's a mental security issue, then go ahead and cart them around, but it really is not necc.
The best peice of advice is to wash your hands well...30-60 seconds...after using these toilets. -This is what happens when you go through medical classes...you cant help but dish advice everywhere.

I often put a little toilet paper on the seat before I go, just because it seems nasty to sit on the surface where other people dripped, etc. etc. I don't do it for fear of diseases, but just because it's gross for my skin to touch where other people's asses have been.

WHy not just carry around a small roll of TP? You can use it as a seat cover and also use it to wipe when there's no paper.

Ive never worried about catching anything from sitting on a toilet seat, I just don't like it if its still warm or I sit in someone elses piss...

I have to say I do now prefer the squat over the hole in the floor type toilets...even some of the most upmarket establishments here have a choice & I usually opt for those now....unless I'm a bit pissed & my balance isnt too good.