Editors note: The “churro incident” happened a while ago. In fact, this is the one year anniversary of when this was meant to be posted. But, you know, some stuff happened and now here we are. We thought it was still worth sharing because it has some valuable lessons. And we really miss those churros. 

It’s a Monday in the Who Gives A Crap office. One of our designers, Gretchen, brings in a box of churros. They’re the good kind of churros – hot, crispy. She woke up early to get them. She even took a train. These are special churros.

It’s also Gretchen’s birthday. We weren't going to tell you that because we didn’t want you to wonder why Gretchen brought in her own birthday treat. We don’t know, it’s just what happened. She was the only one who knew where to get the churros! Stop looking at us like that.

Anyway, we’re all sitting at our desks when our office mascot, Charlie, takes a huge #2 under Gretchen’s desk. It smells. Eyes are watering. There were screams. We all run out of the office (except Charlie’s mum who’s cleaning). Once outside, we realise that no one grabbed the churros. The churros are sitting in the room now filled with poo particles. The contamination – gasp!

We wish we could tell you that we didn’t immediately devour the rest of the churros as soon as we got back in the room. But we’re not liars and that’s exactly what happened. Luckily, no one got sick. Well, except for Lori. But that’s just because she ate 12 churros before noon.

The question is, should we have eaten them?  The facts are these – the box was loosely closed and just over 2 metres from the poo.

Believe it or not, Google does not offer much information about the danger radius of dog poo. It does, however, have plenty of information about “toilet plume,” aka the radius of bacteria around a toilet that comes from flushing with an open lid. For this investigation, that’ll do.

A 2005 study from the Journal of Applied Microbiology found that, after flushing, fecal matter can reach as far as 6 feet (a bit less than 2 metres) from the toilet. I have to assume that because the poo in our office wasn’t agitated by a flush, it probably didn’t reach its full travelling potential. So because of the full 2 metres between the churros and the poo, you could say the churros were in the clear… But you’d be wrong.

In reality, everything we touch is covered in a thin layer of poo particles. Jennifer Gardy, a senior scientist at British Columbia’s Centre for Disease Control, says that studies tracking fecal matter in public spaces are mostly irrelevant,

“All of these studies that go and look and say ‘oh, we found fecal coliform bacteria on the touchscreens at McDonald’s, we found it on cafeteria screens, we found it on the ATM screens on the bank,’ — you can’t not find fecal coliform bacteria.” 

In other words, the churros were contaminated. But they were probably also contaminated before they even got in the office.

So yes, we did eat poo particles. And so did you that day (probably). Especially if you are one of the 10% of Aussies who admit to eating on their work toilet. We know that last stat seems random, but we just really want to encourage those folks to find another place to eat lunch!

The case of Charlie and the churros is now officially closed.