Are Toilet Seat Liners Totally Pointless?

We’ve been sitting on a thrown of flimsy lies…

We need to talk about those thin paper toilet seat covers. You know the ones—the crinkly, awkward sheets that feel like you’re laying down a tissue to protect yourself from the horrors of public restroom porcelain. Well, according to a new article by the BBC, those things might be…completely pointless.

According to one poll by the research group YouGov from 2023, around 63% of Americans sit down when they use a public toilet – but around half of those first line the seat with toilet roll.

Apparently, the idea that these whisper-thin sheets are guarding you from a bacterial apocalypse is more fiction than fact. The paper is so thin it might as well be a suggestion rather than a shield.

As the BBC reports, toilet seats are not the germ-riddled hellscapes we think they are. Most of the bugs that make us sick can’t survive long on hard, dry surfaces. In fact, the riskiest part of the whole bathroom experience? Not washing your hands afterward. (You know who you are.)

And let’s be real: your phone is probably way dirtier than that toilet seat anyway.

Hammer and Nigel talk about their thoughts on the paper throne and how Nigel maybe prefers the comfort of a warm toilet seat…