It’ s Not OK
For Urine To Be On The Floor!
By: Gabriel Torre PeeWee Catcher
“ Employees must wash hands before returning to work.” We’ ve all seen that sign in public restrooms, and we’ re well aware that hand washing is a necessity before leaving a restroom. Although we’ ve all witnessed those grubby offenders who still don’ t wash their hands before leaving. No one wants bathroom germs on their serving tray, food, door handles... and even hand washing doesn’ t eliminate a lesser acknowledged germ-breading culprit. The floors!
Restrooms tend to have an unacceptable amount of urine on the floors. Anyone who has visited a men’ s restroom can testify to that. Men and boys are like animals when it comes to restrooms. You know what I’ m talking about; the area near the urinal that once was gleaming and clean is now dingy, smelly and disgustingly sticky. You enter the restroom with your nice, Italian leather shoes. They make contact with the ground and unavoidably settle into a pool of waste. Germs infiltrate the leather of your shoes and begin to stake a claim on their new breeding ground.
You might be thinking,“ I’ d notice if there was a puddle of urine on the floor.” However, it’ s not that simple. Urine has its way of sneaking out of the urinal, and it’ s not always easy to see.
Men and boys are just bad at aiming or simply don’ t care to try. Even if they do try, the dreaded“ splash-back” is inevitable. Don’ t forget about those days when men want to aim well, but aiming is rendered futile by physical limitations. Men, you know what I’ m talking about.
But it doesn’ t matter because urine is sterile, right? Contrary to popular thought, urine is not sterile. Evann Hilt of Loyola University of Chicago discovered that bacteria is present in urine even before exiting the body due to bacteria that is present in the bladder.
Since it has been confirmed that urine is indeed not sterile, the presence of urine on surfaces is problematic. After all, bacteria can live on surfaces for as long as 48 hours sometimes. A problem particularly arises when a person may be carrying a specific strain of bacteria or virus that can cause a disease. Some bacteria may even be linked to certain bladder conditions that had once been believed to be neuromuscular, not infectious, in origin. Additionally, if urine contains any blood, this can open up an entirely new band of threats.
Aside from that, urine erodes grout and damages tile. Let’ s not even get started on the olfactory assault it delivers.
The bottom line is, urine should not be on the restroom floor. Once it’ s on the floor, it’ s on your feet. Then you transfer the urine particles to your next destination, which could be the doctor’ s office, a restaurant, your home...
Sadly to say, even after a thorough cleaning, most public restrooms would still fail a black light test. Could you imagine what the health and various officials would say? If they thought a 32 oz soda was bad for your health, I can imagine the horror on their faces once they saw a black light sweep of public restrooms. The only way to avoid this atrocity is to prevent it from getting on the floor in the first place. Keep urine in its proper place and prevent passing on the germs.
MOMENTUM / March 2017 21