Does the tap water contain more bacteria than the toilet?

Scientists found that floors, carpets, even tap water produce more bacteria than toilets.

When studying how bacteria circulate in our homes, American scientists have made unexpected discoveries about the places where most bacteria are.

It should be noted that, here, scientists are searching for airborne bacteria . That is, we are talking about where airborne bacteria and not bacteria arise on specific physical surfaces.

Scientists at the University of California brought their specialized devices to 29 households in San Francisco and pinpointed the "source" of airborne bacteria.

The results showed that floors and carpets are the most bacteria-bearing areas with 19.5% of the bacteria in the air (probably because they are where we often step on).

Tap water creates more bacteria than the toilet.

16.5% of bacteria drift in the air created by humans. Meanwhile, tap water produces 9% of the airborne bacteria.

Unexpectedly, the toilet , which is often considered dirty, only produces 0.4% of the airborne bacteria.

"Research on bacteria in the environment is important because we spend most of our time indoors," the scientists wrote in their report. "While the bacteria that live in space, especially in the air, can affect human health, people rarely know them and their origins."

Researchers also found that the number of people and pets living in apartments has a great effect on creating airborne bacteria. Other factors such as cleaning up to a humidity also greatly affect the amount of bacteria in the air in the house.

The report of the scientists mentioned above also said that the microbial composition in the air is different between different geographical regions.

Research by scientists is not only useful for those who want to keep their homes away from bacteria but also provide useful information for managers of office buildings or schools. It shows that there are many types of bacteria in indoor air and outside air in buildings.

In fact, many studies show that some types of bacteria are healthy, helping the body develop the immune system and avoiding many health risks.

The work was published in Microbiome magazine.