Touching, even the seat in toilets, is a big issue for women in their washrooms at work according to Initial.

They company carried out a survey among women across five different professional groups, finding that 22% “kangaroo” or squat above the toilet instead of sitting in order to avoid any bacteria.

“And another 14% - making more than a third overall - wipe the seat first then kangaroo just to be safe” marketing manager Anne Briggs said.

The survey was conducted among 200 women from advertising agencies, publishing, finance, pharmaceutical and general business in Australia.

“If the toilet seat doesn’t look clean, 46% of women wipe the seat first with toilet tissue, but they don’t realize that they are not removing the bacteria when they do that – they are just moving them around!” Briggs said.

“Research shows clearly that a bactericide in the form of a spray or wipe is essential to clean a toilet seat. It was surprising that only 5% of women reported that their office provided products like Anti-bac spray or wipe.”

The research showed that 80% of women wanted to have a sanitary bin that opened without touching and only 5% were in offices which already had them. Initial offers a “no touch” sanitary bin which uses infrared technology so women never have to touch the bin used by others.

The survey also found that 18% will not use their work toilets if they feel they are not clean. Nearly 40% said the best facilities were found in five-star hotels, 51% say the worst were in public toilets. 28% say tissues are the most useful item they notice in other toilets, while 16% think auto-taps and auto flush facilities are the most useful.