Tyler, The Creator: I Rarely Wash My Hands After Peeing
Going #1 without washing your digits: no big deal, says famous rapper Tyler, The Creator. … But is it? (Photo: Franco Vogt/Corbis)
If you ever meet rapper Tyler, The Creator, you may want to give him a fist bump instead of a handshake. In an interview Friday morning with The Woody Show, the controversial artist and producer admitted that he rarely washes his hands after using the restroom.
As part of a segment called Hypothetical Situations, Tyler, The Creator (born Tyler Gregory Okonoma) was asked, “You notice a coworker not washing his or her hands after using the bathroom. Do you confront them?”
Tyler, The Creator, on stage at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, CA, last weekend. (Photo: Corbis)
Tyler’s response: “No, I don’t — I rarely wash my hands after peeing. Just cause I gotta shake a lot of hands, so it’s still that weird sinister thing where I know that I just shook your hand but it’s d— particles all on it.”
“What if you’re at a sushi restaurant?” the interviewer asks. “That’s f—ed up,” Tyler replies, continuing, “But hey man, we breathe in s— air. If there’s a little d— particle in your sushi, then what? … We breathe in smog every day, a little d— residue on your sushi ain’t that bad.”
Now, it’s not completely clear just how much Tyler was joking, especially in context of the full interview (note: adult language). But still — gross, right?
That’s what we thought. But when Yahoo Health reached out to germ experts, we were surprised to learn that the practice of not washing one’s hands after visiting the restroom — while definitely uncouth and icky — isn’t likely to be a serious personal health danger.
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“To put things into perspective, the issues that can arise [from using the restroom without washing your hands] are not especially serious, but they relate to general hygiene that we all expect from each other in this highly developed society in which we live,” says William Schaffner, MD, infectious disease and public health specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. “We don’t like to transmit germs to one another. This is more in the context of appropriate personal hygiene in a civil society.”
Of course, public restrooms are indeed full of bacteria — more than 77,000 different types, according to a 2014 study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. And a study in the journal PLOS One found that the most common types of bacteria in restrooms are associated with human skin, not urine or fecal matter.
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Some harmful bugs identified in restrooms include e. coli and hepatitis A. “The hepatitis A virus is usually spread when a person ingests even tiny amounts of contaminated fecal matter,” says Lisa Yakas, microbiologist with the safety organization NSF International. “These are just two reasons why proper hand washing after using the restroom is a must!” she tells Yahoo Health.
And guys, you aren’t off the hook if you don’t go into a stall. Studies show that bathroom door knobs, soap dispensers, and water faucets have elevated germ counts, Yakas says. One study conducted by NSF International showed that bathroom faucet handles have especially high numbers of coliform bacteria (a group that includes e. coli). “This is because people turn them on with their germy hands and then turn them off when their hands are wet, which provides an ideal environment for microbial growth,” Yakas explains. (Simple fix: Turn off the faucet with a paper towel or the back of your hand.)
The bottom line? Yes, definitely wash your hands after going to the bathroom (with soap for at least 20 seconds, Yakas says). Hand-sanitizing gels or wipes are also plenty effective, Schaffner adds. But if you see someone who leaves without scrubbing up, his or her negligence is more of an err in courtesy than a serious threat to your health.
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