Katharina Buczek
Although one of Crimaldi’s colleagues, Karl Linden, is an environmental engineer who specifically studies ultraviolet light’s disinfectant properties.
So, after Linden pushed Crimaldi to turn his focus to toilet bowls, the two Boulder scientists teamed up to conduct this study together.
Linden first got the idea of studying toilet bowls after brainstorming to find the ideal germy test case for a surface disinfectant based on UV technology.
Then, after thinking about the most common places people are exposed to viruses and pathogens, he settled on restrooms.
More specifically, though, Linden envisioned the toilets located in commercial restrooms– which are typically tankless, lidless, and have a lever most people press with their foot as opposed to a handle.
And in North America, most of these commercial toilets actually have a flushometer-style valve. This means that pressure is relied upon to force water back into the bowl instead of gravity– ultimately causing a high-powered flush that can leave a microscopic cloud of vapors behind.
Of course, past research has confirmed that public restroom stalls are breeding grounds for fecal bacteria.
So, Linden had a hunch that UV light could be an effective answer for disinfection.
Before this technology could be deployed, though, he realized that he needed a more concrete understanding of how these tiny pathogens travel throughout space. Thus, Linden went to Crimaldi for help, and the toilet study was born.
At Crimaldi’s fluid mechanics lab, he holds a yearly summer tradition in which one week is dedicated to tackling a small scientific challenge of sorts.
This challenge is not provided with any funding, and there is actually no pressure to publish any official findings. So, he believed this toilet mystery was a great fit.
