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Toilet

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"The Men's Room" redirects here, for the radio program see The Men's Room (radio program).
Image:Bothie - Jerome, Arizona.jpg
Early 20th Century outhouse, preserved at a ghost town in the Arizona Desert.

A toilet, lavatory, water closet (WC), or loo is a plumbing fixture and disposal system primarily intended for the disposal of the bodily wastes: urine and fecal matter. The word "toilet" can be used to refer to the fixture itself or to the room containing the fixture, especially in British English.

The ancient cities of Harappa[1] and Mohenjo-daro[2] had flush toilets attached to a sophisticated sewage system,[3] and a form of flush toilet was used in the Indus Valley Civilization.[4] Although a precursor to the modern flush toilet system was designed in 1596 by Sir John Harington,[5] the toilet did not enter into widespread use until the late nineteenth century, when it was adopted in English upper class residences.[6]

Contents

Types of toilets

Squat toilet as seen in some parts of France, Italy, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, China and Japan.
Squat toilet as seen in some parts of France, Italy, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, China and Japan.

There are also many different ways to clean oneself after using the toilet. A lot depends on national mores and local resources. The most common choice in the Western world is toilet paper, sometimes used in conjunction with the bidet. (See Toilet paper and Anal cleansing for a discussion of the many alternatives used through history and in different cultures.) In the Middle East and some countries in Asia, and South Asian countries such as India and Pakistan, the custom is to use water, either with or without toilet paper.[citation needed] Traditionally, the left hand is used for this, for which reason that hand is considered impolite or polluted in many eastern countries.[citation needed]

The most common type of toilet in modern cities is the flush toilet, in which water takes away the waste through sewers to a waste treatment plant. In rural areas where sewers are not practical, septic tanks may be installed instead.

The most common design in first-world countries is the sitting toilet. Some other countries use the squat toilet.

Main designs Specialty designs
  • Toilet with built-in bidet
  • Chemical toilet
  • Dry toilet (i.e. no water used for flushing)
    • Pit toilet: very common in camping grounds in the United States. Also known as an outhouse in the U.S.
    • Composting toilet: Very commonly found in camping grounds in Europe, and large climbing parks. Also found in some modern ecologically designed buildings. [[1]]
    • Urine-diverting & dry composting: a source-separation toilet that keeps urine and feces separate and simplifies the composting process. Can also be called an eco-san (from ecological sanitation) toilet, and is a viable alternative to flush sanitation in urban areas [2].
    • Incinerating toilet
    • Tree bog, a system for converting human faeces to biomass
  • Head: a toilet on a boat, which has a pump to bring cleaning seawater in and pump waste overboard or into a holding tank.


Public toilets

Main article: Public toilet
A portable urinal in the Netherlands.
A portable urinal in the Netherlands.
Image:Temporary toilets 15l07.JPG
Portable toilets for a pop concert

Public toilets, public lavatories, or public conveniences are toilets that are accessible to the general public with common access from the street. Conveniences being the collective term for male and female designated toilets, convenience (singular) usually acquiring a gender attribute.

A public toilet may or may not cost money to use; for those that do, see "pay toilet". Between the categories of outright free and outright pay toilets, there is a grey area of toilets where a fee is expected, but not enforced. A charge levied in the UK during the mid-20th century was one British penny, hence the generally adopted term "spend a penny" meaning to use the toilet.[citation needed] Public facilities often have several toilets partitioned by stalls (US) or cubicles (UK). Facilities for men often also have separate urinals, either wall-mounted fixtures designed for a single user, or a constantly-draining basin or trough for collective use. Wall-mounted urinals are sometimes separated by small partitions or other obstructions for privacy, i.e., to keep the user's genitals hidden from public view.[citation needed]

Image:Sanisette.jpg
An automated Sanisette outdoor toilet

Outdoor public toilets (in the street, around parks, etc.) are a form of street furniture. For mixed sex arrangements, there are cubicles varying from simple devices with little or no plumbing to more luxurious versions that automatically clean themselves after every use (for the latter, see Sanisette). Facilities without walls all around are typically for urination only, and for men only; although passers-by can see the urinating men from the back, they cannot see the genitals.[citation needed] These street urinals are known as Pissoirs after the French term [3] (see Urinal).

Some facilities are mobile, and can thus be put in place where and when needed, e.g., for a weekend at an entertainment venue. Additionally, some can be sunk into the ground (and thereby made inoperable), for the periods that they are not needed. The idea behind this is that some people do not like the sight of a public toilet in the street, and they are more easily hidden than repeatedly moved. This type is typically installed in entertainment areas and made operational during weekend evenings and nights.

Image:Tampere station WC.jpg
Some public toilets use blue lighting, to prevent intravenous drug abuse by apparently making it harder to locate the veins.[citation needed]

A portable toilet is an outdoor public toilet with walls which can either be connected to the local sewage system or store the waste and be emptied from time to time. Space shuttles empty waste out into outer space. Many toilets can be cleaned on the spot, or at a central location in the case of a mobile toilet or urinal. In Europe, public toilets are also set up for cities as a compensation for advertising permits. They are part of a street furniture contract between the out-of-home advertising company and the city council. The reason for this combination is the shortage in city budgets.

Terms used to identify a public toilet will vary from region to region. The Gents and The Ladies are commonly used British terms meaning the male and female toilet respectively. Some European public toilets may be marked "WC" (Water Closet); while in the Philippines the label "CR" (comfort room) is common.

Some public toilets have begun to be provided with flushable paper toilet seat covers which allow the user the comfort of knowing that they are not in contact with a surface previously used by a stranger. There is however no medical evidence that these prevent the spread of disease.[7]

Toilets for people with disabilities

Some toilet areas (otherwise known as "stalls"), are specially adapted for people with disabilities. These are wide enough to allow the entry and use by a person in a wheelchair, and often feature hand-holds or grab bars bolted to the wall, enabling the person to maneuver onto the toilet, if necessary. Some countries have legal requirements for the accessibility of toilets.

Further information: Accessible toilets


Gender and public toilets

Separation by sex is characteristic of public toilets to the extent that pictograms of a man or a woman are used to indicate where their respective toilets are. These pictograms are sometimes enclosed within standard geometric forms to reinforce this information, with a circle representing a women's toilet and a triangle representing a men's facility. Pictograms depicting men and women in traditional dress (men in pants, women in skirts) have been criticized for perpetuating gender stereotypes; however, there may be no practical alternatives. Standard gender symbols are rarely used. In restaurants, bars and night clubs, the identifications can be designed to match the decoration of the premises, using male and female figures or parts of the body, text, or even puns, making it difficult for some patrons to identify them[8].

Sex-separated public toilets are a source of difficulty for some people. For example, people with children of the opposite sex must choose between bringing the child into a toilet not designated for the child's gender, or entering a toilet not designated for one's own. Men caring for babies often find that only the women's washroom has been fitted with a change table. People with disabilities who need assistance to use the restroom have an additional problem if their helper is the opposite sex.

Sex-separated public toilets are often difficult to negotiate for transgendered or androgynous people, who are often subject to embarrassment, harassment, or even assault or arrest by others offended by the presence of a person they interpret as being of the other gender (whether due to their outward presentation or their genital status). Transgendered people have been arrested for using not only bathrooms that correspond to their gender of identification, but also ones that correspond to the sex they were born with.

Image:Male symbol on public restroom.JPG
men's public restroom symbol
Image:Female symbol on public restroom.JPG
women's public restroom symbol
See also: SVG symbols of restroom symbols

Many existing public toilets are gender-neutral. Additionally, some public places (such as facilities targeted to the transgendered or LGBT communities, and a few universities and offices) provide individual washrooms that are not gender-specified, specifically in order to respond to the concerns of gender-variant people; but this remains very rare and often controversial. [4] Various courts have ruled on whether transgendered people have the right to use the washroom of their gender of identification. [5]

A significant number of facilities have additional gender-neutral public toilets for a different reason — they are marked not for being for females or males, but as being accessible to persons with disabilities, and are adequately equipped to allow a person using a wheelchair and/or with mobility concerns to use them.

Amnesty International includes segregated toilets among the measures to ensure the safety of girls in schools[9]

Family restrooms

Another recent development in public toilets is the "family restroom". Family restrooms are unisex bathrooms that contain multiple stalls designed for maximum privacy and a communal washing area for use by both genders. The family restroom is designed so that a parent with a young child of the opposite gender can bring the child into the restroom with them without the concerns associated with single-gender restrooms. Family restrooms have started appearing in newly-built sports stadiums, amusement parks, shopping malls, and major museums.

Toilets in public transport

There are usually toilets in airliners, regional rail trains, and often in long-distance buses and ferries, but not in metros, school buses, trams, and other buses. Many newer trains have a waste reservoir, but, in older trains and still in some newer ones, the contents simply fall on the tracks, hence the notice which appears in many train toilets: "Please do not flush while the train is standing at a station".

Lavatories on aircraft consist of a sink, a waste bin, and a toilet. On many newer aircraft the toilet does not flush with water; rather, suction removes the waste into a collection bin below cabin level. This type is generically known as a vacuum lavatory. Older aircraft use a lavatory tank below the toilet (normally hidden by a hinged "flapper valve" at the bottom of the toilet bowl) and a pump to filter and recirculate lavatory fluid to facilitate flushing.

See also: Passenger train toilets

Private toilets

Toilets in private homes are almost never separated by sex. However, the size of a home or facility bears on the availability of options. Small facilities are limited by their space to the toilet options they can offer; it is more common to find a higher number of choices in a large facility. The same is true for homes; in more affluent households in the USA, where the homes are usually larger, bathrooms are also often more spacious than average, and more numerous. In such homes, bathrooms (especially master bathrooms) are increasingly being designed with a small adjoining room exclusively for the toilet, as well as separate washing basins. This makes it easier for couples who share a bathroom to maintain their desired level of privacy and personal space. In Australia, it has long been the case that the toilet is in a separate room from the bathroom.

"High-tech" toilets

Advanced technology is being integrated into toilets with more functions, especially in Japan - see Toilets in Japan. The biggest maker of these toilets is TOTO. Such toilets can cost anywhere from US$200 to $5,000. The features are operated by control pads (sometimes with bilingual labels), and even hand-held remote control devices. Some of these features are

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