restrooms

17 Stories

Americans Keep Buying Bidets, and They're 'Never Going Back'

Bathroom contraption became increasingly popular in US during pandemic, and it seems to be sticking

(Newser) - Four years ago this month , as the pandemic kicked into high gear, most of us were scrambling to track down homemade face masks and scrounging for toilet paper. Thanks to the latter annoyance, many Americans started flocking to buy what's long been standard in other nations worldwide: the bidet...

San Francisco Was Going to Spend $1.7M on Single-Toilet Public Restroom

Although, that plan may be changing after uproar

(Newser) - Ever since the Noe Valley Town Square opened in San Francisco in 2016, families have been urging the city to install a bathroom in the plaza. San Francisco says it's going to do just that. At a cost of $1.7 million. By 2025. The odd story surfaced courtesy...

Captive Rescued After Leaving Notes in Public Restrooms

Victim was allegedly held against her will for months, beaten, sexually assaulted

(Newser) - A man accused of raping and beating a woman while holding her captive for months in Pennsylvania was arrested this week after the woman asked for help in notes left in public bathrooms. In the first note, found stuck to a mirror inside a Walmart bathroom in Carnegie, Pa., on...

Company Invents Toilet You Won't Want to Sit on for Long

StandardToilet wants employees to be more productive

(Newser) - Your office bathroom break might get a little shorter if the boss buys one of these, Wired reports. Designed by the UK startup StandardToilet, the eponymous product tilts down at 13 degrees—just enough to get uncomfortable after about 5 minutes on the throne. Company founder Mahabir Gill claims it...

Here's Where People Are Publicly Netflixing

7% of people admit to streaming TV shows, movies while in public restrooms

(Newser) - "Netflix and chill" is out; Netflix and (shudders) pee is in. In a survey of 37,000 adults around the world conducted a few months ago, Netflix found 7% of people admit to streaming movies or TV shows while in a public restroom, Quartz reports. Overall, the company found...

Supreme Court Blocks Trans Student From Using Boys Restroom

But that's likely to change in the next few months

(Newser) - Seventeen-year-old Gavin Grimm will start his senior year of high school once again banned from using the boys restroom, the AP reports. In a 5-3 decision on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court put a hold on the decision of a lower court that would have allowed Grimm, a transgender male,...

US Poultry Workers Wear Diapers: Report
 US Poultry 
 Workers Wear 
 Diapers: Report 
in case you missed it
May 15, 2016 6:49 AM CDT

US Poultry Workers Wear Diapers: Report

Denial of bathroom breaks a serious safety issue, affront to human dignity: Oxfam

(Newser) - On the Pilgrim's Pride website , "prioritize the team over yourself" is one of the poultry producer's core values. But in something out of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle , Bloomberg notes, an Oxfam America report suggests that "value" is really a humiliating issue for already marginalized workers...

Target: Use Restroom That Matches Your Gender Identity

Retailer takes a stand for 'inclusivity,' solidarity with transgender community

(Newser) - A "religious freedom" mandate in Mississippi and North Carolina's so-called "bathroom bill"—which dictates, among other things, that transgender people must use bathrooms aligned with their birth gender—has triggered big-name stars , TV and film production companies , and businesses to boycott. Now Target is taking a...

Almost All the Bathrooms in This Country Are 'Wrong'

Rick Paulas explains why

(Newser) - You have until tomorrow to vote on the winner of this year's " America's Best Restroom " contest, but Rick Paulas has news for you—nearly all of the bathrooms in America are complete failures. He runs down his reasoning at Pacific Standard :
  • The toilet: It's actually
...

For $1.2K, Club Will Let You Peep Into Ladies' Bathroom

Scotland police investigating

(Newser) - Be careful if you're a woman at Glasgow's Shimmy Club and find yourself having to use the restroom: It's installed with a two-way mirror, and clubgoers who want a look are charged as much as $1,200 to peep in. After complaints, Scotland's police force launched...

Chicago Museum Boasts 'America's Best Restroom'

Field Museum facilities offer 'calming' art' and areas for kids

(Newser) - 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’...

Fun Facts to Know About Toilets

Want to visit a nice public restroom? Try Japan

(Newser) - 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

Organizations discuss worldwide sanitation in Macau

(Newser) - 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”—...

Transsexual Thai Students Get Own Toilets

Up to 20% of rural high school's boys would rather be girls

(Newser) - 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

Inventors help the wary leave the loo without touching doorknobs

(Newser) - 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...

College Johns Go Coed
College Johns Go Coed
Sep 1, 2007 1:18 PM CDT

College Johns Go Coed

Some schools address transgender concerns by creating gender-neutral bathrooms

(Newser) - 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
China Opens Giant Public Loo
Jul 7, 2007 4:28 PM CDT

China Opens Giant Public Loo

Visitors take their pick from 1,000 toilet stalls

(Newser) - 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...

17 Stories