How does a pandemic-level respiratory virus outbreak clog up municipal sewer lines?

Let us count the ways.

There are the antiseptic wipes with which you've cleaned your counters and desks, the antiseptic mop pads with which you've scrubbed your floors and baseboards (don't forget your baseboards!).

There are the gloves you wore while cleaning, or bringing in a delivery or groceries.

Maybe you chucked a cigarette butt down the toilet, maybe a clump of hair from your shower drain, perhaps the odd ribbon of dental floss.

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If you've flushed any of these items you could be helping clog your town's sanitary sewers — and your town wants you to knock it off.

Several Jersey Shore towns have recently sent advisories to their residents, asking that they not use their drains as garbage cans. For some, the advisories are preventative.

"We're just hyper-vigilant, said Brian Rischner, acting executive director for the Township of Middletown Sewer Authority. "With the run on toilet paper, and things like that — the run to use those wipes that aren't good for the sewers."

Middletown posted their advisory March 25 at the authority's request.

"We were just trying to get ahead of the curve and get public notice out," Rischner said.

For other towns, the trouble is incipient.

In Waretown, utility workers "are working to unclog pumps that are clogged by items that should NOT be flushed," township police posted on Facebook March 31. "Please do not flush anything except toilet paper in the toilet."

The items we use to clean our persons and our places are not the only culprits. Fats, oils and greases — or "FOGs" for short — can congeal in sewer lines, constricting pipes and clumping together with other solids to form so-called "fatbergs."

And can you imagine telling a nurse or doctor that a coveted face mask has literally been flushed down a toilet?

“Please do not flush gloves, masks, wipes and grease” the Little Egg Harbor Municipal Utilities Authority wrote in a March 30 electronic alert. “We see many of these in the sewer. They will cause backups, possibly into your home!”

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The wipes, at least, go down the toilet easily enough — but they don't break down the way toilet paper does.

"Even if the label reads 'flushable,' you will have fewer backups and be environmentally correct if you properly dispose the item," Middletown's advisory read. "These 'disposable' items tend to block your sewer lines, which can result in costly backups and overflows."

Middletown's advisory reminded its property owners that they themselves "are responsible for their property's sewer pipes."

Here's what that town told its residents not to flush:

Medical waste

Disinfecting sanitary wipes

Wipes and diapers

Rags and towels

Cotton swabs

Syringes

Candy wrappers

Clothing labels

Cleaning sponges

Toys

Any plastic items

Aquarium gravel

Kitty litter

Latex gloves

Cigarette butts

Sanitary napkins

Hair

Underwear

Disposable toilet brushes

Dental floss

But perhaps, it might be easier to digest this much shorter list of items that you should flush:

Things that ordinarily come out of the human body

Toilet paper

If it's anything else, chuck it in the trash.

Alex N. Gecan: 732-547-1365; agecan@gannettnj.com; @GeeksterTweets