HA! That’s awesome! I always figured it for folklore, but I know quite a few custodians and I wouldn’t put it past any of them to go ahead and re-enact this story. They’re a funny lot, janitors.
Well everyone’s urine is sterile so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Peeing on your hands probably washes off more germs that using a public sink, and it’s supposed to be a refreshing and healthful beverage as well. As for the other stuff normally found in a toilet (except for paper and plastic products), it only got there because someone ate it first. Manure, human or otherwise is the best organic fertilizer because it is chock-full of nutrients which leech out into the crops. So, if you want to look at it that way, every vegetable you eat is composed of recycled shit.
If you hate Brussels sprouts, cut out the middleman. Don’t wipe that finger, lick the nutrients off of it.
IANAD or scientist, but I believe only one’s own urine is sterile to oneself.
I wonder how many people who read the OP and thought “yuk” have a toilet located in their bathroom and don’t put the seat and lid down before flushing…
Quite simple, really-- I fired them.
I think urine is only sterile before it hits the end of the tunnel, so to speak, where it happily picks up bacteria.
And nothing is only sterile to one person. Serility is not relative, its just the absence of living stuff, like bacteria. A substance is either sterile or it isn’t. Above and beyond that, sterility is pretty hard to achieve, if anyone has touched it, its no longer sterile. (as a general rule of thumb)