Will flushing with the lid down stop your bathroom being peppered with the dreaded 'toilet plume'? Scientists test age-old theory and make a very surprising discovery

Flushing the toilet might be a lot grosser than you had expected. They say in their paper published in the American Journal of Infection Control: 'The possible benefit of toilet lid closure during flushing for reducing viral contamination of restroom surfaces has not been demonstrated empirically.' Researchers seeded a toilet with MS2 bacteria, a model for E. Coli, and took samples of the areas surrounding the toilet one minute after flushing The most contaminated areas of the bathroom after flushing: Toilet Bowl Water Toilet Brush Toilet Seat Floor surrounding the toilet Bathroom walls Toilet Lid Source: M. Goforth et al., 2024 To find out more, the researchers seeded a public and private toilet with samples of MS2 bacteria as a model for E. Coli. Surprisingly the researchers found that leaving the lid open or closed made no statistically significant difference to the spread of bacteria around the bathroom The researchers wrote: 'Surprisingly, MS2 contamination of the bottom or top of the toilet lid was consistently low, regardless of lid position prior to flushing.' If you share a bathroom with someone who has a norovirus, for example, you could become infected with their illness by flushing even if you don't the use the toilet directly after them Yet, given the significant effect of disinfectant on levels of bacteria in the water, the researchers say that regularly disinfecting the toilet is the best way to minimise this risk.