Steam Room

I sit in the steam room at the gym occasionally. With a recent management change the steam room now gets so unbearably hot that my feet will literally scald if I sit too close to the heater. Whenever I sit in that damp room slightly larger than an elevator, the same thought goes through my head, "I wonder if this place is extremely clean or a cesspool of bacteria." I didn't pay close enough attention in rudimentary science class to know whether a room that hot and damp would kill bacteria or be the perfect incubator for it. Regardless, I figured it out today when the guy sitting in there blew his nose several times and wiped it on the seat. He was also trying to read a newspaper that was soaking wet from the steam, and I couldn't decide which of his behaviors was more eccentric.