A look at the dark side of sharing bathrooms with women.

A comparison between the relative cleanliness of male and female restrooms (Table 8) showed that male restrooms were 1.5 times "cleaner" overall (1.5 times less total coliform contamination) and that female restrooms were contaminated with E. coli to a much greater extent. In female restrooms the sink (around the drain) was three times more likely to be contaminated with E. coli than the sink drains of the male restrooms. The trends are even more obvious when the toilet, sink, and floor areas were grouped for male and female restroom (Table 9). In frequency of total coliform occurrence, women out-do men nearly 2:1 in all areas. More specifically, in female restrooms, the floor area was 1.6 times more likely to be contaminated, the sink area was 1.9 times, and the toilet area was 1.8 times. The frequency of E. coli isolation was also greater in female restrooms. The E. coli was 4.5 times more often isolated in the sink area of female restrooms. There is a similar trend for the toilet area. Toilet area sites were contaminated with E. coli 1.9 times more often in female restrooms. The floors in male restrooms, however, are more often contaminated (1.7 times more often) with E. coli than the floors in the female restrooms.