restrooms news stories on Newser

Chicago Museum Boasts 'America's Best Restroom'

Matt Cantor — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:02:52 CDT

If you’re ever in Chicago and you really have to go, stop by the Field Museum—its restrooms are officially the best in the country. The natural history museum’s bathrooms have won the 10th annual “America’s Best Restroom” contest, run by restroom-supply company Cintas. So what’s so great about these...

Fun Facts to Know About Toilets

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:29:07 CST

Toilet habits are a taboo subject for most of us, but not for Harvey Molotch. Salon spoke to the sociology professor, who co-edited Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing , about the bathroom fixture. Highlights: We should be using water, not toilet paper, to clean up : It's more eco-friendly,...

Toilet Summit Tackles Issue of 'Potty Parity' for Women

Nick McMaster — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:16:03 CST

The World Toilet Summit began in Macau today, as UN agencies, civil-society groups and the World Toilet Organization discuss how to provide sanitation for the 2.5 billion who still lack access to a clean lavatory, LiveScience reports. The summit will also address the issue of “potty parity”—the ratio...

Transsexual Thai Students Get Own Toilets

Rob Quinn — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:59:28 CDT

A high school in rural Thailand has given its many transgender students their own restroom, the BBC reports. Situated between the boys' and girls' rooms, the room has a half male/half female figure painted on the door. Inside, effeminate teenage boys preen. As many as 20% of the school's male...

Germaphobes Get a Handle on Bathrooms

Kevin Spak — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:40:43 CST

For germaphobes, few sights elicit as much terror as doorknob in a public bathroom. Sure, you washed your hands, “but then someone else didn’t wash their hands and you have to touch the same door handle,” explains the inventor of the SanitGrip, an L-shaped, elbow-operated handle that helps just-cleaned hands...

College Johns Go Coed

Wesley Oliver — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:18:08 CDT

When students return to Emerson College in Massachusetts this month, they’ll be greeted by silhouettes of a man and woman on a single sign outside some two-dozen campus restrooms. In response to growing transgender discomfort with single-sex bathrooms, many colleges are making their johns gender-neutral, the Boston Globe reports.

China Opens Giant Public Loo

Caroline Zimmerman — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:28:00 CDT

Time for tourists to ditch the Great Wall and head for the city of Chongqing in southwest China, which recently opened a startling new attraction: a sprawling public restroom. The free facilities lie behind an Egyptian facade that conceals 1,000 toilets spread over four stories and almost 33,000...