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Flushing a urinal causes an “alarming upward flow” of coronavirus-laden particles, a new study has found – prompting health experts to recommend wearing headgear in public toilets.
Chinese researchers have found that COVID-19 particles from a flush urinal can shoot up to two feet in the air in less than 6 seconds – potentially infecting the unsuspecting urinal user, according to one report published in Physics of Fluids.
“Flushing the urinals does indeed promote the spread of bacteria and viruses,” said Xiangdong Liu, one of the researchers at Yangzhou University behind the study, USA Today reported on Tuesday.
“Wearing a mask should be mandatory in public toilets during the pandemic, and anti-release improvements are urgently needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Liu said.
The findings follow a university study in June that found that flushing a toilet can help spread the deadly virus by projecting droplets up to a meter away – which can then remain in the toilet. air for a minute.
Researchers in that study said droplets could shoot out of a flush toilet in 70 seconds and jump up to a foot above the bowl.
Both studies present potentially dangerous scenarios amid the deadly global pandemic.
“Potentially, it could contaminate other surfaces you touch – the handle, the faucet,” Charles Gerba, professor of virology at the University of Arizona, told USA Today. “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? “
Gerba said most people were unaware that urine and stool release particles into the air, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
“It was probably overlooked – the contamination of the urine,” he told the store. “Smallpox and Zika virus are excreted in the urine. What is surprising is that a respiratory virus can be excreted in the urine. “
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