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Wearing a mask in public toilets should be mandatory during the pandemic, researchers say, as there is growing evidence that flushing the toilet – and now urinals – can release inhalable coronavirus particles in the air.
The coronavirus can be found in a person’s urine or feces, and flushing the urinals can generate an “alarming upward flow” of particles that “travel faster and fly further” than particles from a flush. water, according to a study published in the journal Physics of Fluid Monday.
“Flushing the urinals does indeed promote the spread of bacteria and viruses,” researcher Xiangdong Liu said in a press release. “Face masks should be mandatory in public washrooms during the pandemic, and anti-release improvements are urgently needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
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Liu and other researchers at Yangzhou University in China simulated urinal flushing using computer models and estimated that within five seconds of flushing, viral particles could reach heights of over 2 feet from the ground.
“Potentially, it could contaminate other surfaces you touch – the handle, the faucet,” said Charles Gerba, professor of virology at the University of Arizona. “The concern is also – was there anything left of the person who was there before? An aerosol from the previous user that you could inhale?”
Some of the same researchers published similar results in June, which focused on toilet flushing. Using another computer model, researchers found that thousands of particles can exit a toilet within 70 seconds of flushing, and some can reach more than a foot above the toilet bowl by two times less.
“It is reasonable to assume that the high velocity airflow will expel aerosol particles from the toilet to areas above the toilet, allowing viruses to spread inside, causing risks to the toilet. human health, ”the researchers said at the time.
The studies are interesting but not surprisingly, because research on particles raised in “toilet plumes” has been around for about two decades now, said Joshua Santarpia, professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. in bioaerosols.
“The most interesting thing for me was that I hadn’t looked at the urine issue – whether SARS-CoV-2 was shed in the urine,” he said.
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Many people don’t know that toilets and urinals can release particles into the air, let alone the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes the disease known as COVID-19 – may be. found in the urine and stools of patients. , Says Gerba.
“It has probably been overlooked – the contamination of the urine,” Gerba said. “Smallpox, Zika virus are excreted in the urine. What is surprising is that a respiratory virus can be excreted in the urine.”
At least two studies – one in Tokyo and one in Guangzhou, China – have found coronavirus RNA in the urine of patients. Studies published in the journals Gastroenterology and The Lancet also found coronavirus RNA in patients’ stools, even weeks after patients showed negative results in respiratory samples. A study in and around Beijing, however, found no evidence of the virus in 72 urine samples.
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It is still unclear whether COVID-19 can pass through urine and infect another person, Gerba said.
“Are there enough viruses in the urine to be concerned about? Are enough viruses aerosolized? These are questions we need to look into,” he said.
Researchers at Yangzhou University say transmission in public toilets has already occurred. They cite local reports of a couple, who work in a food market in Beijing, contracting the virus from a nearby toilet.
“What’s worse, two of the re-emerging confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Beijing are believed to have been infected from public toilets, which practically proves the danger of public toilets,” the researchers wrote.
Can coronavirus disease spread by air?
Health experts believe the virus is spread primarily through respiratory droplets when someone coughs or sneezes, but the World Health Organization says “short-range aerosol transmission … cannot be ruled out” .
According to an April study published in the journal Nature.
The researchers recommended that room ventilation, open spaces, disinfection of protective clothing, and the proper use and disinfection of toilets could effectively limit the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in aerosols.
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“I think there are a lot of strategies and interventions that could be developed if it really turns out that there is a significant risk,” Gerba said.
For now, the best next step would be to test the researchers’ computer model to see if flushing a urinal actually sends virus particles into the air, Gerba and Santarpia said.
“Someone should really validate some of that experimentally. It’s a model, and there’s a lot of guesswork,” Santarpia said. “There is still work to be done.”
Follow Grace Hauck on Twitter at @grace_hauck.
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