Do not touch anything in public bathrooms.

Studies show that door handles, public toilettes and many other public places are just as germ ridden as we all feared they were.

For all of us who have spent our lives hovering over toilettes and opening and closing doors with our elbows there is justification for this nearly neurotic behavior.

From December 2010 through last February, Archibald and his colleagues swabbed and cultured faucets, paper-dispenser levers, and door handles inside the bathrooms of four aircraft and 18 other crowded spots such as fast-food restaurants. Names of the businesses were not released. Among the types of microscopic critters commonly discovered were staphylococcus (which can cause fevers and chills) and bacillus (which can cause diarrhea).
“For several restrooms, the quantity of microorganisms was too numerous to count,” Archibald’s paper reports. “…To date, there have been virtually no quantitative or qualitative assessments of the range of bacteria contaminating public restrooms.”