If you've been flushing your toilet without closing the lid first, I'm so sorry to tell you this, but you definitely need to see this video going viral on TikTok.
"Here's why you should always put your toilet seat down before you flush," TikTok user @xxiamkristinxx, aka Kristin, says. "I saw this video 10 years ago and I have never forgotten it."
Kristin then shares a 2011 clip from the Discovery Channel show Curiosity, in which host Mike Rowe is learning the nasty truth about toilet flushes.
"The thing about when you pee is, you get this splatter, this sort of fountain of life splattering back from the toilet," a man referred to as "Dr. Don" explains to Mike.
"And when you poop, it's worse. It's kind of a fecal fountain. It gets all the way to Dave," he adds. (Dave is a cameraman standing several feet away from them, looking absolutely horrified by this revelation.)
To demonstrate just how far a flush will fling your germs, Mike pees in a toilet...
...And then Dr. Don breaks out a black light.
"Therein lies the contradiction of the modern toilet," Mike says. "The contraption meant to whisk germs away is actually spewing them right back at us."
"As you can see with these graphic enhancements, the mist from this bowl can spread staphylococcus and E. coli up to 10 feet, landing on my razor or my toothbrush."
So basically, close the lid before you flush, or your toothbrush is gonna look like Mike's:
"Now, if that video didn't traumatize you enough, think about the fact that public bathrooms don't have toilet seat lids," Kristin concludes at the end of the TikTok, which has amassed over 9 million views so far.
Kristin says she was inspired to share the clip with TikTok because it "changed [her] habits forever."
"I saw another person’s video using a black light to show what happens when guys pee standing up," she told BuzzFeed. "So I wanted to show people what happens when you flush the toilet with the lid still open."
And she described the feeling of going viral for a PSA about toilet flushing as "exciting but kind of weird": "I keep expecting to log in to TikTok and see that the video has finally died out, but it hasn’t yet. It just keeps going."
You can follow Kristin at @xxiamkristinxx on TikTok, and check out the full clip from the Discovery Channel below (if you dare):
