I Didn’t Know That . . .

Q: Are paper toilet seat covers in public restrooms useful?

A: No, according to the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter. If the seat is clean and dry, you do not need a seat cover. If the seat is wet, it will leak through the paper. People worry about the transmission of diseases, especially sexual diseases, by toilet seats, but this worry is unfounded. As long as the skin of your buttocks and thighs is unbroken, you have no chance of contracting a disease. The many layers of the skin form a fairly impermeable barrier, and the skin also contains immune cells that attack any microorganism that should attempt to breach it.