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‘I already have anxiety about bathrooms u just upped it’: Woman issues warning about public bathrooms. Is there anything you can do about it?

‘Another thing I have to worry about.’

Photo of Alexandra Samuels

Alexandra Samuels

Woman talking(l), Public restrooms(r)

A woman is going viral on TikTok after issuing a warning to people who use public restrooms: Bring your own toilet paper. 

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Cynthia Dixon (@angelstouch5) recently recorded herself in a public restroom. She wore gloves as she unfurled a roll of toilet paper from the dispenser. 

“Let me show y’all something [about] using public restrooms,” Dixon said. 

After pulling out the tissue paper, which she said people commonly use on their “private parts,” she revealed that it’s dirtier than most people think. Just pulling the toilet paper square by square from the dispenser won’t show you how dirty it is, though. 

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To demonstrate that, Dixon removed the entire roll from the dispenser. On the sides of the roll were strange green markings. 

“This is what’s on the outside of the tissue,” Dixon warned, noting that it can be “blood” or “urine.” 

“This can be anything that someone decided to put on the side of the tissue, and you’re using it because you don’t see it,” she said.

Dixon’s advice to viewers was to bring their own wipes, whether that be toilet paper or baby wipes. She doubled down on her advice in her video’s accompanying caption.

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“Be careful with using these restrooms! Especially the tissue! Every public restroom is not sanitized and their products are not safe!!” she wrote. As of Tuesday, Dixon’s clip had amassed more than 525,000 views.

There’s no evidence suggesting this is a common phenomenon 

A reporter from the New York Post confirmed that bodily fluids sometimes find their way onto toilet paper rolls. In a 2024 post to YouTube, the reporter showed viewers a video of a toilet paper roll, which had tiny red blood splotches on its side. 

“This is not from someone’s bloody nose or a little accident,” he said. He alleged that the culprit in this case was someone cleaning their dirty needles on the roll.

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While a doctor later debunked the reporter’s claims, it is true that these rolls of tissue can get dirty as a result of humans tampering with them.

As Dixon showed, the rolls can be pulled out, and people, theoretically, could smear any type of substance on them. And there’s no telling how widespread this is. 

Should you bring your own wipes? 

If Dixon’s video or similar ones spooked you about the safety and cleanliness of public restrooms, there’s no shame in bringing wipes. If you go this route, you should be sure to buy flushable baby wipes, as most are not.

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According to one brand of wipes, from Nice ’N CLEAN, baby wipes are not flushable unless it’s explicitly stated on the packaging. That’s because most brands of wipes contain plastic, it said.

Even wipes that are advertised as being flushable come with risks, the brand said. It noted, for instance, that standard flushable wipes can only be flushed one or two at a time.

@angelstouch5 Be careful with using these restrooms! Especially the tissue! Every public restroom is not sanitized and their products are not safe!! #publicrestrooms #investinwipes ♬ original sound – Cynthia Dixon

Viewers express fear of public restrooms 

In the comments section of Dixon’s video, many viewers said her clip only further exacerbated their fears of public restrooms. 

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“I already have anxiety about bathrooms u just upped it,” one viewer said. 

“Another thing I have to worry about,” another added. 

“And I thought I was doing something by rolling off a good amount of tissue before using it,” a third user wrote. 

Others swore off using public restrooms. 

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“Ima just bring my own bathroom at this point,” one woman quipped. 

“I’ll just have bubble guts till I get home,” another echoed. 

“That’s why I don’t use public restrooms,” a third user said. “I hate taking my girls out & they have to use the restroom, I get so irritated knowing something like this is waiting on them.”

And many people said they planned on taking Nixon’s advice and bringing their own tissue when out in public. 

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“This [is] why I carry wipes,” one woman commented. 

“Y’all ain’t gotta worry about me,” another said. “I’m carrying my own tissue from here on out.”

“I always carry my baby wipes,” a third user added. 

The Daily Dot has reached out to Dixon via TikTok comment.

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