Interesting:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/health&id=6576491
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/health&id=6576491
JoFact or Myth? You can get infections or illnesses from sitting directly on a public toilet seat.
Answer: Myth
"Just sort of sitting on the seat and having that contact with the skin on your butt isn't going to be a way of transmitting an infection," said Elizabeth Scott, co-director and founder of the Simmons Center for Hygiene and Health in Home and Community Settings at Simmons College in Boston.
"I think that one's associated with the fact that we all find public toilets very disgusting," she said, adding that you were more likely to get sick from touching the toilet seat or the flush handle with your hand.
Dr. J. Owen Hendley, professor of pediatric infectious disease at the University of Virginia Children's Hospital, said that this myth has been a persistent one.
Of getting an infection, he said, "I guess you could, but I've never known of a documented case where that actually happened."
But that has not stopped the myth. Hendley noted that the concern might have originated with a fear that syphilis could spread through toilet seats. He said that that fear is likely behind the design of many public toilet seats in which the seat itself is open in the front, preventing contact between the person and the seat in that area.
But the knowledge that sitting directly on the seat doesn't spread the germs doesn't seem likely to make it more appealing.
"I couldn't imagine it [spreading infection]," said Hendley. "Which is not to say I would like to go into a public restroom and sit down on the toilet seat."