Engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder have confirmed what the germ-phobic among us have long suspected: The flush of a commercial toilet releases a Vesuvius-like cloud of tiny droplets and aerosol particles that reaches more than 5 feet above the seat.
Though invisible to the naked eye, when illuminated by green lasers, the plume appears like a burst of microscopic confetti thrown at the world’s grossest party, one composed of tiny drops of water and whatever else might be in the bowl.
The research, published in December in the journal Scientific Reports, was strictly an exploration in fluid mechanics. The team flushed toilets containing only clean water, and did not investigate the infectiousness of any particles that might be in the plume.
