Why toilet seats matter

It is important for toilet users to be comfortable when passing both urine (wee) and faeces (poo). Therefore, care must be taken to ensure the seat allows users to be comfortable – and, of course, that it is clean. The prospect of discomfort will lead to children postponing visits to the toilet. This can result in passing urine at inappropriate times, as well as constipation. The prospect of dirty seats can lead to pupils ‘perching’ rather than sitting properly, and this in turn can lead to infections.

Shutting the lid means that more of the fine spray from the toilet bowl stays in the bowl.

Spray from flushing the toilet

If you don’t close the lid before you flush the toilet, the spray from the toilet flush can land up to several feet away from the toilet. The spray is hard to see with the naked eye.

When you flush the toilet, the spray from the toilet bowl can contain a range of viruses and bacteria, some of which may cause serious illnesses. Some of the viruses and bacteria can survive for hours or days. It is therefore important to shut the lid before you flush the toilet.

How to see this for yourself – a fun experiment

Teachers may like to do this experiment with small groups. Parents may also like to do it at home. Children should not do this experiment without adult supervision.

1. Before you start, make sure that the toilet has been flushed properly.
2. Put about 15ml (1 tablespoon) of food colouring into the toilet bowl.
3. Put the seat up and stretch cling film across the top of the bowl, so that it covers all of it and sticks to the outside of the toilet.
4. Flush the toilet and watch as droplets fly up to the underside of the cling film. If the cling film wasn’t there, those drops could fly out and land on the floor.
5. Let each pupil or child look at the cling film through a magnifying glass, to see how many smaller droplets there are. The drops could all be carrying germs that can make us ill.
6. Don't forget to remove the cling film! It should be put in an outside bin.
7. Everyone who took part should wash their hands after this experiment.

Encouraging pupils to close the toilet lid
The above experiment can be very useful in encouraging pupils to close the toilet lid before they flush. In addition, a design feature which requires the user to close the lid before flushing would help, although this would require pupils to actually flush the toilet after use.