Assessing the risk of COVID-19 transmission in public restrooms
Assessing the risk of COVID-19 transmission in public restrooms lead image
Although respiratory droplets have been recognized as the main transmission route for COVID-19, there exist other pathways where the virus could be transmitted. For instance, toilet flushing can aerosolize droplets carrying viruses present in the urine and fecal matter from infected individuals. This potential pathway for viral transmission may be amplified in public restrooms with high occupancy and poor ventilation.
Schreck et al. sought to quantify the aerosolization of droplets from flushing toilets and assess the associated risk of viral transmission in public restrooms. They monitored the presence of droplets with sizes ranging from 0.3 to 3 μm at different heights above urinals and toilets after flushing, and were able to detect the droplets from as high as 1.52 m, or about 5 feet, above the toilets and urinals.
The authors also detected a smaller number of droplets in the air when the toilet was flushed with a closed lid, albeit not by a large reduction.
Since the practice of installing and enforcing lid closing while flushing may be difficult to implement, the more practical solution may be better ventilation, which can also reduce the aerosols from respiratory droplets accumulated over time in public restrooms.
“It may not always be necessary to overhaul the entire system, since most buildings are designed to certain codes. It might just be a matter of redirecting the airflow based on the room’s layout,” said author Siddhartha Verma.
Next, the authors plan to continue their effort to identify ways to reduce the risk of indoor transmission by considering other variables, such as airflow patterns and furniture design.
Source: “Aerosol generation in public restrooms,” by Jesse H. Schreck, Masoud Jahandar Lashaki, Javad Hashemi, Manhar Dhanak, and Siddhartha Verma, Physics of Fluids (2021). The article can be accessed at http://doi.org/10.1063/5.0040310 .
This paper is part of the Flow and the Virus Special Collection, learn more here .
