Honestly don’t worry, as Mythbusters pointed out that neither are a health concern due to the low concentration relatively speaking and if anything it helps your immune system build up defenses against E coli and the like. Just know lid up during your flush means the sent lingers less. Then after the flush I would advise closing the lid to keep any lingering sent in the air of the toilet bowl and less likely to be disturbed by any airflow in the room. Just don’t like seeing misleading info spread around as honestly the science behind it is pretty interesting.
I don’t know whether it’s an issue with the website, but currently I can’t see much else besides some text which sounds like an abstract. This makes it currently difficult to see this as a good source or estimate the quality of the work. Judging on this abstract alone, although it mentions that the time particles are detectable is about 10 minutes longer with the lid down, it also reports a 30 to 50 % decreased amount of particles. It also states a lack of research regarding smaller particles.
As far as I can see we could safely say, that this issue, whether it’s better to keep the lid up or down, is still debated and a final verdict is still out:
Honestly don’t worry, as Mythbusters pointed out that neither are a health concern due to the low concentration relatively speaking and if anything it helps your immune system build up defenses against E coli and the like. Just know lid up during your flush means the sent lingers less. Then after the flush I would advise closing the lid to keep any lingering sent in the air of the toilet bowl and less likely to be disturbed by any airflow in the room. Just don’t like seeing misleading info spread around as honestly the science behind it is pretty interesting.
I don’t want to step on your toes, so hopefully this doesn’t come across that way:
You mentioned Myth Busters and an article from 2019 on microbiologyresearch.com in another comment .
Let’s just say without further elaboration, that Myth Busters are not a solid scientific source.
I couldn’t really find a paper from the article you linked in another comment. Just this: https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.fis2019.po0192
I don’t know whether it’s an issue with the website, but currently I can’t see much else besides some text which sounds like an abstract. This makes it currently difficult to see this as a good source or estimate the quality of the work. Judging on this abstract alone, although it mentions that the time particles are detectable is about 10 minutes longer with the lid down, it also reports a 30 to 50 % decreased amount of particles. It also states a lack of research regarding smaller particles.
As far as I can see we could safely say, that this issue, whether it’s better to keep the lid up or down, is still debated and a final verdict is still out:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2011.08.010
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0040310
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0013318
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24686-5
However, to me it seems that there are indications that a combination of proper ventilation and closing the lid might be better than an open lid.
Disclaimer: Not my field of expertise. Feel free to correct, where necessary.
Yeah, but now I’ve lost an argument with my wife… She remembered too…
Not necessarily. See my discussion in the same comment level.