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A public toilet, restroom, bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with
toilet A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human waste (urine and feces) and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting p ...
s (or
urinal A urinal (, ) is a sanitary plumbing fixture similar to a toilet, but for urination only. Urinals are often provided in men's public restrooms in Western countries (less so in Muslim countries). They are usually used in a standing position. ...
s) and
sink A sink (also known as ''basin'' in the UK) is a bowl-shaped plumbing fixture for washing hands, dishwashing, and other purposes. Sinks have a tap (faucet) that supplies hot and cold water and may include a spray feature to be used for fas ...
s for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils or prisoners. Public toilets are typically found in many different places: inner-city locations, offices, factories, schools, universities and other places of work and study. Similarly, museums, cinemas, bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues usually provide public toilets. Railway stations, filling stations, and long distance
public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...
vehicles such as
trains A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...
, ferries, and
planes Plane most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface * Plane (mathematics), generalizations of a geometrical plane Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane ...
usually provide toilets for general use.
Portable toilet A portable or mobile toilet (colloquial terms: thunderbox, porta-john, porta-potty or porta-loo) is any type of toilet that can be moved around, some by one person, some by mechanical equipment such as a truck and crane. Most types do not require ...
s are often available at large outdoor events. Public toilets are commonly separated by sex (or gender) into male and female toilets, although some are unisex (gender-neutral), especially for small or single-occupancy public toilets. Public toilets are sometimes accessible to people with disabilities. Depending on the culture, there may be varying degrees of separation between males and females and different levels of privacy. Typically, the entire room, or a stall or cubicle containing a toilet, is lockable.
Urinal A urinal (, ) is a sanitary plumbing fixture similar to a toilet, but for urination only. Urinals are often provided in men's public restrooms in Western countries (less so in Muslim countries). They are usually used in a standing position. ...
s, if present in a male toilet, are typically mounted on a wall with or without a divider between them.
Local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...
or commercial businesses may provide public toilet facilities. Some are unattended while others are staffed by an
attendant Attendant or attendance may refer to: * Car attendant, a railroad employee * Flight attendant, flight crew employed to ensure the safety and comfort of the passengers * Museum attendant * Toilet attendant, maintains standards in a toilet and coll ...
. In many cultures, it is customary to tip the attendant, especially if they provide a specific service, such as might be the case at upscale nightclubs or restaurants. Public toilets may be municipally owned or managed and entered directly from the street. Alternatively, they may be within a building that, while privately owned, allows public access, such as a department store, or it may be limited to the business's customers, such as a restaurant. Some public toilets are free of charge, while others charge a fee. In the latter case they are also called
pay toilet A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires the user to pay. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equip ...
s and sometimes have a charging
turnstile A turnstile (also called a gateline, baffle gate, automated gate, turn gate in some regions) is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce One-way traffic#One-way traffic of people, one-way ...
. In the most basic form, a public toilet may just be a street urinal known as a ''
pissoir A pissoir (also known in French as a ) is a French invention, common in Europe, that provides a urinal in public space with a lightweight structure. The availability of pissoirs aims to reduce urination onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets. ...
'', after the French term. Public toilets are known by many other names depending on the country; examples are: restroom, bathroom, men's room, women's room, powder room (US); washroom (Canada); and toilets, lavatories, water closet (W.C.), ladies and gents (Europe).


Alternative names

Public toilets are known by many names in different
varieties of English Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, and other aspects of grammar. For the classification of varieties of English in pronunciation only, see regional accents of English. Overview Dialects ...
. In
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
, "restroom" commonly denotes a facility featuring toilets and sinks designed for use by the public, but "restroom" and "bathroom" are often used interchangeably for any room with a toilet (both in public and in private homes). "Restroom" is considered by some to be slightly more formal or polite. "Bathroom" is quite common in
school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...
s. "Comfort station" sometimes refers to a visitor welcome center such as those in national parks. The term restroom derived from the fact that in the early 1900s through to the middle of the century up-scale restaurants, theatres and performing facilities would often have comfortable chairs or sofas located within or in a room directly adjacent to the actual toilet and sink facilities, something which can be seen in some movies of the time period. An example of this is the description of a "movie palace" which was opening in 1921 which was described as including " ... a rest-room for the fair sex and a lounging room for the sterner sex ... off these rooms are the toilets." In
Canadian English Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the Variety (linguistics), varieties of English language, English used in Canada. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or ...
, public facilities are frequently called and signed as "washrooms", although usage varies regionally. The word "toilet" generally denotes the fixture itself rather than the room. The word "washroom" is rarely used to mean "utility room" or " mud room" as it is in some parts of the United States. "Bathroom" is generally used to refer to the room in a person's home that includes a bathtub or shower while a room with only a toilet and sink in a person's residence is typically called a "washroom" because one would wash one's hands in it upon returning home or before a meal or a "powder room" because women would fix their make-up on their faces in that room. These terms are the terms typically used on floor plans for residences or other buildings. Real estate advertisements for residences often refer to "three-piece washrooms" (include a bathtub or shower) and "two-piece washrooms" (only toilet and sink). In public athletic or aquatic facilities, showers are available in
locker room A locker is a small, usually narrow storage compartment. They are commonly found in dedicated cabinets, very often in large numbers, in various public places such as Changing room, locker rooms, workplaces, schools, transport hubs and the like ...
s. In Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand, the terms in use are "public toilet", "public lavatory" (abbreviated "lav"), "public convenience", and more informally, "public loo". As public toilets were traditionally signed as "gentlemen" or "ladies", the colloquial terms "the gents' room" and "the ladies' room", or simply "the gents" and "the ladies" are used to indicate the facilities themselves. The British Toilet Association, sponsor of the
Loo of the Year Awards The Loo of the Year Awards are run to celebrate the best public toilet A public toilet, restroom, bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are availabl ...
, refers to public toilets collectively as "away-from-home" toilets. In
Philippine English Philippine English is a variety of English native to the Philippines, including those used by the media and the vast majority of educated Filipinos and English learners in the Philippines from adjacent Asian countries. English is taught ...
, "comfort room", or "C.R.", is the most common term in use. Some European languages use words cognate with "toilet" (e.g. ''les toilettes'' in French; ''туалет'' (tualet) in Russian), or the
initialism An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps wi ...
"W.C.", an abbreviation for "water closet", an older term for the flush toilet. In
Slavic language The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
s, such as Russian and Belarusian, the term '' sanuzel'' (санузел; short for ''sanitarny uzel'' — sanitary unit/hub) is sometimes used for public facilities which include a toilet, sink, and possibly a shower, bathtub, and / or bidet. Public urinals (''
pissoir A pissoir (also known in French as a ) is a French invention, common in Europe, that provides a urinal in public space with a lightweight structure. The availability of pissoirs aims to reduce urination onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets. ...
'') are known in several
Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
s by the name of a Roman Emperor: ''vespasienne'' in French and ''vespasiani'' in Italian. Mosques, ''
madrassa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning. ...
s'' (schools), and other places Muslims gather, have public sex-separated "ablution rooms" since Islam requires specific procedures for cleansing parts of the body before prayer. These rooms normally adjoin the toilets, which are also subject to
Muslim hygienical jurisprudence Purity () is an essential aspect of Islam. It is the opposite of ''najāsa'', the state of being ritually impure. It is achieved by first removing physical impurities (for example, urine) from the body, and then removing ritual impurity through ...
and
Islamic toilet etiquette Islamic toilet etiquette is a set of personal hygiene rules in Islam that concerns going to the toilet. This code of Islamic hygienical jurisprudence is called ''Qaḍāʾ al-Ḥāǧa'' (). Personal hygiene is mentioned in a single verse of the ...
.


Types

Many public toilets are permanent small buildings visible to passers-by on the street. Others are underground, including older facilities in Britain and Canada. Contemporary street toilets include automatic, self-cleaning toilets in self-contained pods; an example is the Sanisette, which first became popular in France. As part of its campaign against open defecation, the Indian government introduced the remotely-monitored eToilet to some public spaces in 2014. Public toilets may use seated toiletsas in most Western countriesor
squat toilets A squat toilet (or squatting toilet) is a toilet used by squatting, rather than sitting. This means that the posture for defecation and urination is to place one foot on each side of the toilet drain or hole and to squat over it. There are severa ...
. Squat toilets are common in many Asian and African countries, and, to a lesser extent, in Southern European countries. In many of those countries,
anal cleansing Anal hygiene refers to practices (anal cleansing) that are performed on the anus to maintain personal hygiene, usually immediately or shortly after defecation. Anal cleansing may also occur while showering or bathing. Post-defecation cleansing is ...
with water is also the cultural norm and easier to perform while squatting than seated. Another traditional type that has been modernized is the screened French street urinal known as a ''
pissoir A pissoir (also known in French as a ) is a French invention, common in Europe, that provides a urinal in public space with a lightweight structure. The availability of pissoirs aims to reduce urination onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets. ...
'' (''vespasienne''). The telescopic toilet is designed to extend and retract vertically from a cylinder relative to street level depending on the time of day. It is typically installed in entertainment districts and operational only during weekends, evenings, and nights. The first such toilet was a telescopic urinal invented in the Netherlands, which now also offers pop-up toilets for women. Private firms may maintain permanent public toilets. The companies are then permitted to use the external surfaces of the enclosures for advertising. The installations are part of a
street furniture Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. It includes bench (furniture), benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, phone boxes, streetlamps, traffic ...
contract between the
out-of-home advertising Outdoor advertising or out-of-home (OOH) advertising includes public billboards, wallscapes, and posters seen while "on the go". OOH advertising formats fall into four main categories: billboards, street furniture, Transit media, transit, and a ...
company and the city government and allow these public conveniences to be installed and maintained without requiring funds from the municipal budget. Various
portable toilet A portable or mobile toilet (colloquial terms: thunderbox, porta-john, porta-potty or porta-loo) is any type of toilet that can be moved around, some by one person, some by mechanical equipment such as a truck and crane. Most types do not require ...
technologies are used as public toilets. Portables can be moved into place where and when needed and are popular at outdoor festivals and events. A portable toilet can either be connected to the local
sewage system Sewerage (or sewage system) is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff (stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, and screen ...
or store the waste in a holding tank until it is emptied by a
vacuum truck A vacuum truck, vacuum tanker, vactor truck, vactor, vac-con truck, vac-con is a tank truck that has a pump and a tank. The pump is designed to pneumatically suck liquids, sludges, slurries, or the like from a location (often underground) int ...
. Portable
composting toilets A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that treats human waste by a biological process called composting. This process leads to the decomposition of organic matter and turns human waste into compost-like material. Composting is carried out b ...
require removal of the container to a composting facility. The standard wheelchair-accessible public toilet features wider doors, ample space for turning, lowered sinks, and grab-bars for safety. Features above and beyond this standard are advocated by the Changing Places campaign. Features include a hoist for an adult, a full-sized changing bench, and space for up to two
caregiver A caregiver, carer or support worker is a paid or unpaid person who helps an individual with activities of daily living. Caregivers who are members of a care recipient's family or social network, who may have specific professional training, are o ...
s. Public toilets have frequently been inaccessible to people with certain disabilities.


Purposes

As an "away-from-home" toilet room, a public toilet can provide far more than access to the
toilet A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human waste (urine and feces) and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting p ...
for
urination Urination is the release of urine from the bladder through the urethra in Placentalia, placental mammals, or through the cloaca in other vertebrates. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, v ...
and
defecation Defecation (or defaecation) follows digestion and is the necessary biological process by which organisms eliminate a solid, semisolid, or liquid metabolic waste, waste material known as feces (or faeces) from the digestive tract via the anus o ...
. People also wash their hands, use the mirrors for grooming, get
drinking water Drinking water or potable water is water that is safe for ingestion, either when drunk directly in liquid form or consumed indirectly through food preparation. It is often (but not always) supplied through taps, in which case it is also calle ...
(e.g. refilling water bottles), attend to
menstrual hygiene The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that makes pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of egg ...
needs, and use the waste bins. Public toilets may also become places for harassment of others or illegal activities, particularly if principles of
Crime prevention through environmental design Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is a system for developing the built environment to reduce the possibility of opportunistic crime and limit the perception of crime in a given neighborhood. CPTED originated in the United Sta ...
(CPTED) are not applied in the design of the facility.


History


Europe

Public toilets were part of the sanitation system of ancient Rome. These latrines housed long benches with holes accommodating multiple simultaneous users, with no division between individuals or groups. Using the facilities was considered a social activity.Peter Kasza
"Das große Latrinum: 155 Jahre öffentliche Toilette"
in ''
Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'', 22 June 2007
By the Middle Ages public toilets became uncommon, with only few attested in
Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
in 1348, in London in 1383, and in Basel in 1455. A public toilet was built in Ottoman Sarajevo in 1530 just outside a mosque's exterior courtyard wall which is still operating today. Sociologist Dara Blumenthal notes changing bodily habits, attitudes, and practices regarding hygiene starting in the 16th century, which eventually led to a resurgence of public toilets. While it had been perfectly acceptable to relieve oneself anywhere,
civility Civility may denote orderly behavior and politeness. Historically, civility also meant training in the humanities. Developmental model Adolf G. Gundersen and Suzanne Goodney Lea developed a civility model grounded in empirical data that "stresse ...
increasingly required the removal of waste product from contact with others. New instruction manuals, schoolbooks, and court regulations dictated what was appropriate. For instance, in ''Galateo: or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners'',
Giovanni della Casa Giovanni della Casa (28 June 1503 – 14 November 1556) was an Italian poet, diplomat, clergyman and inquisitor, and writer on etiquette and society. He is celebrated for his famous treatise on polite behavior, ''Il Galateo, Il Galateo overo de� ...
states “It does not befit a modest, honourable man to prepare to relieve nature in the presence of other people, nor do up his clothes afterward in their presence. Similarly, he will not wash his hands on returning to decent society from private places, as the reason for his washing will arouse disagreeable thoughts in people.” Historian
Lawrence Stone Lawrence Stone (4 December 1919 – 16 June 1999) was an English historian of early modern Britain, after a start to his career as an art historian of English medieval art. He is noted for his work on the English Civil War and the history of marri ...
contends that the development of these new behaviours had nothing to do with problems of hygiene and bacterial infection, but rather with conforming to increasingly artificial standards of gentlemanly behaviour. These standards were internalized at an early age. Over time, much that had to be explained earlier was no longer mentioned, due to successful social conditioning. This resulted in substantial reduction of explicit text on these topics in subsequent editions of
etiquette Etiquette ( /ˈɛtikɛt, -kɪt/) can be defined as a set of norms of personal behavior in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviors that accord with the conventions and ...
literature; for example, the same passage in ''Les règles de la bienséance et de la civilité Chrétienne'' by Jean-Baptiste de la Salle is reduced from 208 words in the 1729 edition, to 74 words in the 1774 edition. The first modern flush toilet had been invented in 1596, but it did not gain popularity until the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
. When hygiene became a heightened concern, rapid advancements in toilet technology ensued. In the 19th century, large cities in Europe started installing modern flushing public toilets. George Jennings, the sanitary engineer, introduced public toilets, which he called "monkey closets", to the
Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...
for
The Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition that took ...
of 1851. Public toilets were also known as "retiring rooms." They included separate amenities for men and women, and were the first flush toilet facilities to introduce sex-separation to the activity. The next year, London's first public toilet facility was opened. Underground public toilets were introduced in the United Kingdom in the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
, in built-up urban areas where no space was available to provide them above ground. The facilities were accessible by stairs, and lit by
glass brick Glass brick, also known as glass block, is an architectural element made from glass. The appearance of glass blocks can vary in color, size, texture and form. Glass bricks provide visual obscuration while admitting light. The modern glass block ...
on the pavement. Local health boards often built underground public toilets to a high standard, although provisions were higher for men than women. Most have been closed as they did not have disabled access, and were more prone to vandalism and sexual encounters, especially in the absence of an attendant. A few remain in London, but others have been converted into alternative uses such as cafes, bars and even dwellings. In Paris, underground public toilets were introduced in 1905 with the Lavatory Madeleine, which is preserved as a ''
Monument historique () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...
''.


Hong Kong

In the early days of the colony of Hong Kong, people would go to the toilet in sewers, barrels or in alleys. Once Hong Kong opened up for trade (1856–1880), the British Hong Kong government determined that the appalling hygiene situation in Hong Kong was becoming critical. Thus, the government set up public toilets (
squat toilets A squat toilet (or squatting toilet) is a toilet used by squatting, rather than sitting. This means that the posture for defecation and urination is to place one foot on each side of the toilet drain or hole and to squat over it. There are severa ...
) for people in 1867. But these toilets needed to be cleaned and emptied manually every day and were not popular. In 1894, plague broke out in Hong Kong and 2,500 people died, especially public toilet cleaners. The government decided to act, setting up underground toilet facilities to improve this situation, though these toilets also had to be cleaned and emptied manually. Early in 1940, the colonial government built the first public flush toilet. In 1953, a fire broke out in Shek Kip Mei. After that, the government embarked on a major public housing project in Hong Kong including public toilets for residents. More than ten people shared each toilet and they used them for bathing, doing their laundry as well as going to the toilet. Finally, in the 1970s, the government decided that one toilet for four or five families was insufficient and renovated all public housing providing separate flush pedestal toilets for all residents.


United States

In the United States, concerns over public health and sanitation spurred the sanitarian movement during the late 1800s. Reforms to standardize plumbing codes and household plumbing were advocated for; the intersection of advancements in technology and desire for cleanliness and disease-free spaces spurred the development of public toilets. Facilities for women sometimes had a wider emphasis, providing a safe and comfortable private space in the public sphere. The Ladies Rest Room is one example of the non-euphemistic use of the term: literally, a place to rest. Historically such rooms pre-dated the washroom and washrooms were added afterwards. Subsequent integrated designs resulted in the "women's restroom lounge". A notable early example of a public toilet in the United States is the Old School Privy. The American architect
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
claimed to have "invented the hung wall for the w.c. (easier to clean under)" when he designed the Larkin Administration Building in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
in 1904. According to a 2021 study b
QS Supplies
the United States has just 8 public toilets for every 100,000 people, a rate that ties the country with
Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
in terms of access to toilet facilities. In the 1970s there were 50,000 coin-operated public restrooms in the U.S., but they were eliminated by 1980, and public facilities did not replace them.


South Africa

During the
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
years in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, public toilets were usually segregated by race.


Legislation


Mandatory requirements

In
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, there exists no federal law or regulation that makes public toilets provision compulsory. The lack of public toilets across Brazil results in frequent acts of public urination.


Sex separation


United States

Massachusetts passed the first law requiring sex separation of public toilets in 1887. By 1920, this was mandated in 43 states. In jurisdictions using the
Uniform Plumbing Code Designated as an American National Standard, the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials ( IAPMO) to govern the installation and inspection of plumbing system ...
in the U.S., sex separation is a legal mandate via the
building code A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for construction objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permis ...
.


Toilets for employees and customers

Various countries have legislation stipulating how many public toilets are required in a given area for employees or for customers.


United States

The
Restroom Access Act The Restroom Access Act, also known as Ally's Law, is legislation passed by several U.S. states that requires retail establishments that have toilet facilities for their employees to also allow customers to use the facilities if the customer has a ...
is legislation several U.S. States passed that requires retail establishments with toilet facilities for employees to also allow customers to use the facilities if the customer suffers from an
inflammatory bowel disease Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine, with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC) being the principal types. Crohn's disease affects the small intestine and large intestine ...
or other medical condition requiring immediate access to a toilet.


United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the ''Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992'' requires businesses to provide toilets for their employees, along with washing facilities including soap or other suitable means of cleaning. The ''Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Approved Code of Practice and Guidance L24'', available from Health and Safety Executive Books, outlines guidance on the number of toilets to provide and the type of washing facilities associated with them.
Local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...
are not legally required to provide public toilets, and while in 2008 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee called for a duty on local authorities to develop a public toilet strategy, the Government rejected the proposal. In 2022 the UK Government Equality Minister
Kemi Badenoch Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch (' Adegoke; born 2 January 1980) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservati ...
announced plans to make provision of single-sex toilets compulsory in new public buildings above a certain size. The technical review consultation on increasing accessibility and provision of toilets for men and women in municipal and private sector locations outlined the context in a call for evidence to be submitted:


Equality of access

The presence or absence of public toilets has also long been a reflection of a society's class inequalities and social hierarchies. In the UK the number of public toilets fell by nearly 20% from 3,154 in 2015/16 to 2,556 in 2020/21 This loss leads to health and mobility inequality issues for a range of people, including the homeless, disabled, outdoor workers and those whose illnesses mean that they frequently need to access a toilet. The decline of the great British public toilet is described by the
Royal Society for Public Health Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is an independent, multi-disciplinary charity concerned with the improvement of the public's health. RSPH's Chief Executive is William Roberts, while its current president is Professor Lord Patel of Bradf ...
as creating a “urinary leash” which restricts how far people can travel out from their homes.


Access for females

The lack of public toilets for females reflects their exclusion from the public sphere in the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
. During this period, after leaving their parents' home, women were expected to maintain careers as homemakers and wives. Thus, safe and private public toilets were rarely available for women. The result was that they were often restricted in how far they could travel away from home without returning. Alternatively, they had to make do in the public streets as best they could. They often experienced sexual harassment as men tried to "sneak a peek" or otherwise bothered them. Some females experienced even worse if they could not secure safety and privacy even at home or in their workplaces. These problems continue for women and girls in all parts of the world. The practice of
pay toilet A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires the user to pay. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equip ...
s emerged in the US in the late 19th century. In these spaces, public toilets could only be accessed by paying a fee. Sex-separated pay toilets were available at the Chicago World's Fair (US) in 1893. Females complained that these were practically unavailable to them; authorities allowed them to be free, but on Fridays only. In the twentieth century, activist groups in the U.S., including the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America, claimed that such practices disadvantaged women and girls because men and boys did not have to pay for urinals. As an act of protest against this phenomenon, in 1969 California Assemblywoman March Fong Eu destroyed a toilet on the steps of the California State Capitol. By the 1990s most US jurisdictions had migrated away from pay toilets. Until 1992, U.S. female senators had to use toilets located on different floor levels than the ones they were working on, a reflection of their intrusion in an all-male profession. While some public facilities were available to females in London by 1890, there were many fewer than those available to males.Penner, Barbara. ''Bathroom''. Reaktion Books, 2013. Toilets also were assigned strong moral overtones. While public water closets were considered necessary for
sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...
reasons, they were viewed as offending public sensibilities. It has been said that because public facilities were associated with access to public spaces, extending these rights to women was viewed as "immoral" and an "abomination". As a result of Victorian era codes, women were delegated to the private sphere, away from the public, fulfilling their roles as dutiful wives and mothers where any association with sexuality or private body parts was taboo. For women, the female lavatory in a public space was associated with danger and immoral sexual conduct. According to World Bank data from 2017, over 500 million females lacked access to sanitation facilities to go to the bathroom or manage
menstrual hygiene The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that makes pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of egg ...
. Risk of sexual assault is high, in India as high as 50%.
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
includes sex-separated toilets among its list of suggested measures to ensure the safety of women and girls in schools. In many places the queues for the female toilets are longer than those for the males; efforts to deal with this are known as
potty parity Potty parity is equal or equitable provision of public toilet facilities for females and males within a public space. Parity can be defined by equal floorspace or by number of fixtures within the washrooms, sometimes adjusted for the longer aver ...
. It has been estimated that females can take up to 50% longer in the toilet. The reasons given include the requirement to use a cubicle rather than a urinal, pregnancy, managing menstruation, health conditions (such as cystitis), clothing design, and helping others. Women are more likely to be accompanied by very young children, disabled, or older people.


Access for African-American people (racial segregation)

After slavery ended in the United States, southern states attempted to replicate social economic oppression by passing laws requiring that blacks and whites be separated in all public and private venues.
Racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...
included public toilets, mandated by
Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...
laws prior to the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
. Justifications provided for segregated facilities included "protection of a certain group, privacy, cleanliness, and morality.” This segregation imposed significant restrictions on the lives of
African-Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
. Strategies to keep African-Americans out of sight included the "basement solution," which involved locating public toilets for black people in the basement next to janitor supply rooms. Black workers often had to walk long distances to get to the toilets they were assigned. Those who were able to afford cars could avoid the indignities of segregated trains and buses, but they faced the difficulty of finding a public toilet they were allowed to use. Courtland Milloy of the ''Washington Post'' recalled that on cross-country road trips in the 1950s his parents were reluctant to stop the car to allow the children to relieve themselves – it just was not safe. One solution to this was to carry a
portable toilet A portable or mobile toilet (colloquial terms: thunderbox, porta-john, porta-potty or porta-loo) is any type of toilet that can be moved around, some by one person, some by mechanical equipment such as a truck and crane. Most types do not require ...
(a sort of bucket-like arrangement) in the trunk of the car. This treatment led to the creation of ''
The Negro Motorist Green Book ''The Negro Motorist Green Book'' (also, ''The Negro Travelers' Green Book'', or ''Green-Book'') was a guidebook for African American roadtrippers. It was founded by Victor Hugo Green, an African American postal worker from New York City, and ...
'', an annually updated guidebook. Once the traveler found the correct "colored restroom", it could serve "as a respite from the insults of the white world", akin to what is now called
safe space The term safe space refers to places "intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations", according to Merriam-Webster. It is a place where marginalized groups can discuss issues pert ...
. Following the 1941 executive order which prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defence industries or government,” white women refused to share bathrooms with black women throughout the South. Engaging in numerous labor strikes and walkouts against
Fair Employment Practice Committee The Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) was created in 1941 in the United States to implement Executive Order 8802 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "banning discriminatory employment practices by Federal agencies and all unions and com ...
politics, they erroneously claimed that racial integration would cause them to catch syphilis from toilet seats. Similar arguments equating equal access to restrooms with contracting venereal diseases were made by white women after the 1954 court ruling against segregated public schools which led to the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. Samuel Younge Jr., then a student at
Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU; formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) is a Private university, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It was f ...
, was murdered in 1966 after trying to use a "whites-only" restroom. He was the first black college student to be killed for his actions supporting the Civil Rights Movement.


Access for people with disabilities

Public toilets have frequently been inaccessible to people with disabilities. In the United States, all public toilets in federal buildings were required to be accessible to people with disabilities by the
Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 The Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 ("ABA", , codified at et seq.) is an Act of Congress, enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The ABA requires that facilities designed, built, altered, or leased with funds supplied by the United States Fe ...
. These requirements were extended to all public buildings by the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ...
.


Access for transgender and gender non-conforming people

Access to public toilets for transgender and gender non-conforming people is often contested. In the United States, various
bathroom bill A bathroom bill is the common name for legislation or a statute that denies access to public toilets by gender or transgender identity. Bathroom bills affect access to sex-segregated public facilities for an individual based on a determination o ...
s have been put forward to define who can have public toilet access, and on what terms. Many of these bills seek to criminalize usage by people whose gender identity does not match the sex on their birth certificates. A variety of reasons have been put forward for these measures, including protecting the privacy of females, avoidance of retraumatization in females affected by male violence, and to protect females from being assaulted by males donning disguises, although there is no evidence of the latter ever having occurred in the past. The UK's
Equality and Human Rights Commission The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a non-departmental public body in Great Britain, established by the Equality Act 2006 with effect from 1 October 2007. The Commission has responsibility for the promotion and enforcement of e ...
published guidance in 2022 outlining scenarios where it considered exclusion of transgender people from single-sex spaces to be justifiable and proportionate. While transgender public toilet usage has been labelled as a
moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral e ...
, the ongoing discourse continues to have significant impacts on this group.


Health aspects


Health problems from lack of public toilets

Public toilets play a role in community health and individual well-being. Where toilets are available, people can enjoy outings and physical activities in their communities. By letting people get out of their cars and onto their feet, bicycles and mass transit, public toilets can contribute to improved environmental health. Mental well-being is enhanced when people are out with families and friends and know a place "to go" is available. Public toilets also serve people who are "toilet challenged". First, some people need to go very frequently, including young and old people, people who are pregnant or menstruating, and those with some medical conditions. Second, some people need toilet access urgently, suddenly and without warning: such as those with chronic conditions such as Crohn's disease and colitis, and those temporarily afflicted with food-borne illnesses. The inability to satisfy essential physiological needs because no toilet is available contributes to health issues such as urinary tract infections, kidney infections, and digestive problems, which can later develop into severe health problems."Give us a (Loo) break!" (8 March 2010) Trade Union Congress https://www.tuc.org.uk Inadequate access to a public toilets when required can lead to substantial problems for people with
prostate The prostate is an male accessory gland, accessory gland of the male reproductive system and a muscle-driven mechanical switch between urination and ejaculation. It is found in all male mammals. It differs between species anatomically, chemica ...
problems, people who are menstruating or going through the
menopause Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time when Menstruation, menstrual periods permanently stop, marking the end of the Human reproduction, reproductive stage for the female human. It typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 5 ...
, and people with
urinary The human urinary system, also known as the urinary tract or renal system, consists of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and the urethra. The purpose of the urinary system is to eliminate waste from the body, regulate blood volume and blood pressu ...
and
fecal incontinence Fecal incontinence (FI), or in some forms, encopresis, is a lack of control over defecation, leading to involuntary loss of bowel contents—including flatus (gas), liquid stool elements and mucus, or solid feces. FI is a sign or a symptom ...
. A 2015 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 8% of transgender Americans reported having developed urinary tract infections, kidney infections, and other kidney-related problems as a result of avoiding, or not being granted access to, the facilities. In another survey, the group DC Trans Coalition found that 54% of its respondents (located in
Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
) reported physical problems from avoiding using public toilets, such as dehydration, kidney infections, and urinary tract infections. According to the Government of Australia, more than 3.8 million Australians of all ages are estimated to suffer continence issues. This represents 18% of the Australian population. Therefore, the Department of Health and Ageing maintains the National Public Toilet Map to enable the public to find the closest facility. Workers have legal rights to access a toilet during their work day. In the United States, the Department of Labor's
Occupational Health and Safety Occupational safety and health (OSH) or occupational health and safety (OHS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work (i.e., while performing duties required by one's occupation). OSH is re ...
protects workers' rights to toilet breaks because of the documented health risks. This protected right to a toilet is a function of the workplace and is lost when workers leave the workplace. If bus and truck drivers on timed schedules have difficulty in accessing toilets, this puts them at risk of bladder and digestive health problems. Furthermore, if the concentration of a driver in urgent need is compromised, it becomes a broader public safety concern.


Design


Entry


Doorless entry

Modern public toilets may be designed with a labyrinth entrance (doorless entry), which prevents the spread of disease that might otherwise occur when coming in contact with a door. Doorless entry provides visual privacy while simultaneously offering a measure of security by allowing the passage of sound. Doorless entry also helps deter vandalism; fewer audible clues to another person entering discourages some vandals. Doorless entry may also be achieved simply by keeping an existing door propped open, closed only when necessary.


Coin operated entry

Pay toilets usually have some form of coin operated turnstile, or they have an attendant who collects the fee.


Privacy

People often expect a high level of privacy when using public toilets. Privacy expectations may include toilet cubicles, cubicle doors, urinal partitions and similar. The
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
states that toilets should be "suitable, private and safe to use for all intended users, taking into consideration their gender, age and physical mobility (e.g. disabled, sick etc.)" and "All shared or public toilets should have ..doors that can be locked from the inside, and lights".


Service access

Modern public toilets often have a service entrance, utilities passage, and the like, that run behind all the fixtures. Sensors are installed in a separate room, behind the fixtures. Usually, the separate room is just a narrow corridor or passageway.


Sensors

Sensor-operated fixtures (faucets, soap dispensers, hand dryers, paper towel dispensers) prevent the spread of disease by allowing patrons to circumvent the need to touch common surfaces. Sensor-operated toilets also help conserve water by limiting the amount used per flush, and require less routine maintenance. Each sensor views through a small window into each fixture. Sometimes the metal plates that house the sensor windows are bolted on from behind, to prevent tampering. Additionally, all of the electrical equipment is safely behind the walls, so that there is no danger of electric shock. However, a
residual-current device A residual-current device (RCD), residual-current circuit breaker (RCCB) or ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) is an electrical safety device, more specifically a form of Earth-leakage circuit breaker, that interrupts an electrical circuit ...
must be used for all such electrical equipment. Some public toilets have an automatic sensor-controlled flushing system that flushes the toilet when the user steps away from the sensor. They might also have an additional button that the user can push to provide a second flush.


Urinals

Urinal A urinal (, ) is a sanitary plumbing fixture similar to a toilet, but for urination only. Urinals are often provided in men's public restrooms in Western countries (less so in Muslim countries). They are usually used in a standing position. ...
s for males are common in public toilets as they are more space efficient than toilets (for
urination Urination is the release of urine from the bladder through the urethra in Placentalia, placental mammals, or through the cloaca in other vertebrates. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, v ...
). Urinals in public toilets are common in
Western countries The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also constitute the West. ...
but less so in
Muslim countries The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is p ...
, partly due to Islamic toilet etiquette rules. Urinals for women exist but are rare. Urinals can be with automatic or manual flushing, or without flush water as is the case for waterless urinals. They can be arranged as single sanitary fixtures (with or without privacy walls) or in a trough design without privacy walls. The
body posture Human positions refer to the different physical configurations that the human body can take. There are several synonyms that refer to human positioning, often used interchangeably, but having specific nuances of meaning. *''Position'' is a gen ...
for users of urinals is specifically the
standing position Anatomical terminology is a specialized system of terms used by anatomists, zoologists, and health professionals, such as doctors, surgeons, and pharmacists, to describe the structures and functions of the body. This terminology incorporat ...
. Compared with
urination Urination is the release of urine from the bladder through the urethra in Placentalia, placental mammals, or through the cloaca in other vertebrates. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, v ...
in a general-purpose toilet, usage is faster and more sanitary because at the urinal there are no fecal germs, no additional doors or locks to touch, and no seat to turn up. A urinal takes less space, is simpler, and consumes less water per flush (or even no water at all) than a flush toilet. Urinal setups can have individual urinals (with or without privacy partitions) or a communal urinal (also called a trough urinal) which is used by multiple men.


Lighting

Service lighting consisting of windows that run all the way around the outside of the toilet using electric lights behind the windows, to create the illusion of extensive natural light, even when the toilets are underground or otherwise do not have access to natural light. The windows are sometimes made of
glass brick Glass brick, also known as glass block, is an architectural element made from glass. The appearance of glass blocks can vary in color, size, texture and form. Glass bricks provide visual obscuration while admitting light. The modern glass block ...
, permanently cemented in place. Lighting installed in service tunnels that run around the outside of the toilets provides optimum safety from electrical shock (keeping the lights outside the toilet), hygiene (no cracks or openings), security (no way for vandals to access the light bulbs), and
aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
(clean architectural lines that maintain a continuity of whatever aesthetic design is present, e.g., the raw industrial urban aesthetic that works well with glass brick).


Cisterns (tanks)

Older toilets infrequently have service ducts, and often in old toilets that have been modernized, the toilet cistern is hidden in a tiled over purpose-built 'box'. Often old toilets still have high-level cisterns in the service ducts. On the outside, the toilet is flushed by a handle (just like an ordinary low-level cistern toilet) although behind the wall this handle activates a chain. Sometimes a long
flushing trough A flushing trough is a long cistern which serves several Flush toilet, toilet pans. It is designed to allow a shorter interval between flushes than individual cisterns. Flushing troughs were commonly used in places such as schools, colleges, publ ...
is used to allow closets to be flushed repeatedly without waiting for the cistern to refill. This trend of hiding cisterns and fittings behind the walls started in the late 1930s in the United States and in the United Kingdom from the 1950s, and by the late 1960s it was unusual for toilet cisterns to be visible in public toilets. In some buildings such as schools, however, a cistern can still be visible, although high-level cisterns had become outdated by the 1970s. Many schools now have low-level cisterns.


Hand drying options

An option for hand drying is usually provided next to the sink. This can be either a
paper towel dispenser A paper-towel dispenser is a wall-mounted device that dispenses paper towels in a public toilet so that hands can be dried after hand washing. Some are operated by a handle, some by pulling the paper from the dispenser, and others by automatic di ...
(sometimes they have auto-sensors for touchless dispensing) or a mechanical
hand dryer A "hand dryer" is an electric machine which might make use of a heating element and an air blower to dry both the hands after hand washing. Since 1922, it is commonly used in public toilets around the world as a cost-effective alternative to p ...
(used manually or with auto-sensors). Drying of washed hands is important for convenience but also because wet hands are more easily recontaminated. Paper towels are more hygienic than electric air dryers.


Other fixtures

Public toilets by their nature see heavy usage. Some high-vandalism settings, such as beaches or stadiums, will use metal toilets. Public toilets generally contain several of the following fixtures.


In the lockable cubicle (stall)

*Toilet cubicle door *
Toilet A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human waste (urine and feces) and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting p ...
with
toilet seat A toilet seat is a hinged unit consisting of a round or oval open seat, and usually a lid, which is bolted onto the bowl of a toilet used in a sitting position (as opposed to a squat toilet). The seat can be either for a flush toilet or a dry ...
; whereas a home toilet seat has a lid, a public toilet may or may not, and may not even have a seat *
Toilet paper Toilet paper (sometimes called toilet/bath/bathroom tissue, or toilet roll) is a tissue paper product primarily used to clean the human anus, anus and surrounding region of Human feces, feces (after defecation), and to clean the external gen ...
, often within a lockable dispenser *Coat hook *"Pull-down" purse holder * sanitary protection bin for menstrual products; this may be classified as
clinical waste Biomedical waste or hospital waste is any kind of waste containing infectious (or potentially infectious) materials generated during the treatment of humans or animals as well as during research involving biologics. It may also include waste ass ...
and be subject to special regulations concerning disposal *Dispenser for flushable paper toilet seat covers * Toilet cubicle door lock sign. The toilet cubicle door lock signs are indicated in either colour: Vacant is marked in green, while Engaged is marked in red


At the point of handwashing

*Faucets (taps); some are at a lower level for children and wheelchair users *Antiseptic hand-wash dispenser or soap dispensers, pump bottles or auto dispensers (not commonly supplied) *Mirror (usually over sinks) *
Waste container A waste container, also known as a dustbin, rubbish bin, trash can, garbage can, wastepaper basket, and wastebasket, among other names, is a type of container intended to store waste that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "r ...
/ rubbish bin


Elsewhere

*
Urinal A urinal (, ) is a sanitary plumbing fixture similar to a toilet, but for urination only. Urinals are often provided in men's public restrooms in Western countries (less so in Muslim countries). They are usually used in a standing position. ...
s (almost exclusively in public toilets for males; although see
female urinal A female urinal is a urinal designed for the female anatomy to allow for ease of use by women and girls. Different models enable urination in standing, semi-squatting, or squatting position, squatting postures, but usually without direct bodily ...
) *
Vending machines A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or payment is otherwise m ...
dispensing condoms, diapers (nappies), painkillers, energy drinks, perfume, breath mints, facial tissue, confectionery, undergarments, swimwear, soap, sex toys, or sanitary napkins or tampons * Air fresheners or odour control systems *Infant changing table, often fold-down (usually in women's rooms, but increasingly also in men's rooms). They are sometimes placed within a, usually large, toilet cubicle. *Sometimes showers are also present, often with soap, shampoo, or similar dispensers (often at
truck stops A truck stop (known as a service station in the United Kingdom, a travel center by major chains in the United States and a roadhouse in rural Australia) is a commercial facility which provides refueling, rest (parking), and often ready-made f ...
)


Cleaning, maintenance and management

Thorough cleaning and maintenance are important for public toilets. This task is usually performed by a " public toilet attendant" (who is there during an entire shift) or by professional cleaning staff. They maintain and clean the facilities, ensuring that
toilet paper Toilet paper (sometimes called toilet/bath/bathroom tissue, or toilet roll) is a tissue paper product primarily used to clean the human anus, anus and surrounding region of Human feces, feces (after defecation), and to clean the external gen ...
,
soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...
,
paper towels A paper towel is an absorbent, disposable towel made from paper. In Commonwealth English, paper towels for kitchen use are also known as kitchen rolls, kitchen paper, or kitchen towels. For home use, paper towels are usually sold in a roll of Pe ...
, and other necessary items are kept stocked. Public toilets need both periodic maintenance and emergency cleaning.PHLUSH (2015
Public Toilet Advocacy Toolkit
Part 1: Strategy Tools, Section 4: Plan for Operational and Financial Sustainability, also available i
SuSanA library
/ref> Volunteer-managed facilities may also be an option in some cases. There are now durable options for restroom stall materials such as solid plastic that were designed to help fight vandalism. Solid plastic allows for scratches to be less noticeable due to the solid color throughout the product compared to powder coated steel. Powder coated steel chips easily lead to obvious damage compared with solid plastic. Solid plastic is also easier to clean and maintain in public restrooms with high traffic volumes.


Costs and economics


User fees

Toilets that require the user to pay may be
street furniture Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. It includes bench (furniture), benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, phone boxes, streetlamps, traffic ...
or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equipment. Paying to use a toilet can be traced back almost 2,000 years — the Roman emperor
Vespasian Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...
is believed to have begun charging his citizens to use toilet facilities 74 AD. The payment may be taken by a bathroom attendant, or by a coin-operated turnstile or cubicle door. (see
John Nevil Maskelyne John Nevil Maskelyne (22 December 1839 – 18 May 1917) was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with other Victorian-era devices. He worked with magicians George Alfred Cooke and David Devant, and many of his illus ...
, who invented a door lock requiring the insertion of a penny coin, hence the
euphemism A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...
to "spend a penny") The first pay toilet in the United States was installed in 1910 in
Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and Terre Haute metropolitan area, its metropolitan area had a populati ...
.


Privatization and closures

In some places, the provision of public toilet facilities is under great pressure. One response by public authorities is to close the buildings, often citing criminal activity. The
United Kingdom government austerity programme The United Kingdom government austerity programme was a fiscal policy that was adopted for a period in the early 21st century following the era of the Great Recession. Coalition and Conservative governments in office from 2010 to 2019 used the ...
has led to major council cut-backs to public toilet provision, with knock-on effects on the public realm as a whole. Some of the buildings, particularly the underground ones, are sold and used for other purposes, e.g. as a bar. Another response is to
privatise Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation wh ...
the toilets, so that a
public good In economics, a public good (also referred to as a social good or collective good)Oakland, W. H. (1987). Theory of public goods. In Handbook of public economics (Vol. 2, pp. 485–535). Elsevier. is a commodity, product or service that is bo ...
is provided by a contractor, just as
private prison A private prison, or for-profit prison, is a place where people are imprisoned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit pris ...
s are. The toilets may fall under the category of
privately owned public space Privately owned public space (POPS), or alternatively, privately owned public open spaces (POPOS), are terms used to describe a type of public space that, although privately owned, is legally required to be open to the public under a city's zoni ...
- anyone can use them, but the land ultimately belongs to the corporation in question. When toilets that have been privatised are improperly run, or closed, there may be calls to take them back into the control of the public authority.


Society and culture


Unisex (gender neutral)

Public toilets are often separated by sex. In many cultures, this separation is so characteristic that
pictogram A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...
s of a man or a woman often suffice to indicate the facility, without explicit reference to the fixtures themselves. In restaurants and other private locations, the identifications can be designed to match the decoration of the premises. Toilet facilities for people with disabilities, especially those reliant on a wheelchair, may be either gender-specific or unisex. Gender-neutral toilets are usual in cases where sex-separated ones are not practical, such as in aircraft lavatories and
passenger train toilets Many passenger trains (usually medium and long-distance) have toilet facilities, often at the ends of carriages. Toilets suitable for wheelchair users are larger, and hence trains with such facilities may not have toilets in each carriage. Hopp ...
. In the 21st century, with support from the
transgender rights movement The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health c ...
, some initiatives have called for gender-neutral public toilets, also called
unisex public toilet Unisex public toilets (also referred to as gender-inclusive, gender-neutral, mixed-sex or all-gender, or without any prefix at all) are public toilets that are not separated by sex or gender. Unisex public toilets take different forms: they m ...
s (also called gender-inclusive, or all-gender). These may be instead of, or in addition to, gendered toilets, depending on the circumstances. Many groups are re-imagining what public toilets can look like; for instance, architect Joel Sanders, transgender historian
Susan Stryker Susan O'Neal Stryker (born 1961) is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT St ...
, and legal scholar Terry Kogan launched ''Stalled!,'' an open source website which offers lectures, workshops, and design guidelines for unisex public toilets. In addition to accommodating transgender and gender non-conforming individuals,
gender-neutral Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, Gender-neutral language, language, and other social institutions (social structures or gender roles) ...
public toilets facilitate usage for people who may require assistance from a caretaker of another gender, such as people with disabilities, elderly people, and children. An additional consideration with regard to gendered public restrooms is the availability of baby changing tables. Sometimes, these tables have only been installed in women's restrooms, owing to stereotypical assumptions that only women were likely to be accompanied by babies needing to have their
diaper A diaper (, North American English) or a nappy (British English, Australian English, Hiberno-English) is a type of underwear that allows the wearer to urinate or defecate without using a toilet, by absorbing or containing waste products to p ...
s changed. This can be an impediment for fathers with their children and other male caregivers. Advocates have worked for changing tables to be installed in men's restrooms. Unisex washrooms would provide access to either regardless.


Graffiti and street art

Public toilets have long been associated with
graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...
, often of a transgressive, gossipy, or low-brow humorous nature (cf.
toilet humour Toilet humour or potty humour is a type of off-colour humour dealing with: defecation (including diarrhea and constipation), in which case it is called scatological humour (compare scatology); urination; flatulence, in which case it is called f ...
). The word '' latrinalia''—from ''latrine'' (toilet) and ''-alia'' (a collection)—was coined to describe this kind of graffiti. A famous example of such artwork was featured on the album cover of the satirical
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
Broadway musical Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), many of the extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatr ...
''
Urinetown ''Urinetown: The Musical'' is a satirical comedy musical that premiered in 2001, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bur ...
'', using felt-tip pen scribblings. As graffiti merged into
street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant gr ...
, so some public street-level toilets began to make a feature of their visibility. The Hundertwasser toilet block is a colourful example in
Kawakawa, New Zealand Kawakawa is a small town in the Bay of Islands area of the Northland Region of New Zealand. Kawakawa developed as a service town when coal was found there in the 1860s, but coal mining ceased in the early 20th century. The economy is now based o ...
, designed by an Austrian artist and viewed as a tourist draw in a small town.


Drugs, vandalism and violent crime

Some public toilets are known for drug-taking and drug-selling, as well as vandalism. This type of criminal activity is associated with all "neglected, unsupervised buildings", not just toilets, and good cleanliness and maintenance, and ideally an attendant on the premises, can act as a protection against these problems.
Violent crime A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful Force (law), force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, vio ...
inside public toilets can be a problem in areas where the rate of such crimes in general is very high. In South Africa, for instance, many people have reported being afraid to use public toilets. There have been several highly publicized murders in public toilets, such as the Seocho-dong public toilet murder case in South Korea in 2016. In the US, an infamous case was the murder of a 9-year-old boy in 1998 in a San Diego county public toilet. Increasing public toilet provision can help to protect women from violent attacks. Research studies have found increased risk of women and girls being raped where there is limited or no access to safe toilets at night. Several billion people lack access to improved water and sanitation and must travel long distances or wait until nighttime to defecate under cover of darkness. Women and girls managing
menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and Mucous membrane, mucosal tissue from the endometrium, inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized ...
increases their water and sanitation requirements for several days each month. Amongst the UN sustainable development goals, there is specific reference to achieving access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls in vulnerable situations (indicator 6.2). A study conducted by the UCLA School of Law's
Williams Institute The Williams Institute is a public policy research institute based at the UCLA School of Law focused on sexual orientation and gender identities issues. History The Williams Institute was founded in 2001 through a grant by Charles R. "Chuck" ...
found no significant change in the number of crimes since the passage of various laws that enable transgender public toilet usage. Transgender and gender non-conforming people are at risk of violence when using the public toilet (see: trans bashing). A 2015 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 59% of transgender Americans avoided using public facilities for fear of confrontation. This landmark study, which included 27,715 respondents, found that 24% of respondents had their presence in the restroom questioned, 12% had experienced verbal harassment, physical assault, or sexual assault when attempting to use the restroom, and 9% were denied access entirely. Several studies have found that preventing transgender people from using public toilets has negative mental health impacts, leading to a higher risk of suicide.


Anonymous sex

Before the
gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s in the Western world, that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoff ...
movement, public toilets were amongst the few places where men too young to enter
gay bar A gay bar is a Bar (establishment), drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBTQ+ communi ...
s legally could meet others who they knew with certainty to be gay.''Prejudice and Pride: Discrimination Against Gay People in Modern Britain''
' by Bruce Galloway; Published by Routledge, 1983; , .''
Many, if not most, gay and bisexual men at the time were
closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for LGBTQ people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior. This metaphor is associated and sometime ...
, and almost no public gay social groups were available for those under
legal drinking age The legal drinking age is the minimum age at which a person can legally consume alcoholic beverages. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased in some countries. These laws vary betwe ...
. The privacy and anonymity public toilets provided made them a convenient and attractive location to engage in sexual acts then. Sexual acts in public toilets are outlawed in many jurisdictions (e.g. the
Sexual Offences Act 2003 The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (c. 42) is an Act of the Parliament (for England and Wales). It partly replaced the Sexual Offences Act 1956 with more specific and explicit wording. It also created several new offences such as non-consensual voyeu ...
in the UK). It is likely that the element of risk involved in cottaging makes it an attractive activity to some.


Symbols in unicode

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
provides several symbols for public toilets.Unicode.org
Transport and Map Symbols
Range: 1F680–1F6FF. (accessed 6 November 2012)


Toilets in particular locations


Shopping centres

Customers often expect retail stores and shopping centres to offer public toilets. Customers rank complimentary toilets highly, and their availability influences shopping behaviour. By offering appropriate customer toilets, retail stores and shopping centres may enhance their profits and image; however, many retailers pay insufficient attention to their customer toilet facilities. Due to the potential of customer toilets to increase profits and improve store image, retailers could benefit from regarding toilets as a marketing investment rather than a property expense. Some businesses, like
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...
, have officially opted to let anyone use their toilets, without having to purchase anything. This decision was made after a highly publicized instance of
racial profiling Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the offender profiling, selective enforcement or selective prosecution based on race or ethnicity, rather than individual suspicion or evidence. This practice involves discrimination against minority pop ...
.


Schools

Lack of adequate school toilets is a very serious problem in many developing countries, and contributes to many problems from poor
child health Pediatric nursing is part of the nursing profession, specifically revolving around the care of neonates and children up to adolescence. The word, ''pediatrics'', comes from the Greek words 'paedia' (child) and 'iatrike' (physician). 'Paediatrics' ...
to school dropouts. Many
pit latrines A pit latrine, also known as pit toilet, is a type of toilet that collects human waste in a hole in the ground. Urine and feces enter the pit through a drop hole in the floor, which might be connected to a toilet seat or squatting pan for user ...
are not adequately built for young children, which has resulted in the tragic consequence of children dying by falling inside the hole. Globally, about 620 million children do not have adequate toilets at school, around 900 million cannot wash their hands properly, and almost half of schools do not provide soap. The situation of inadequate school toilets violates children's
right to education The right to education has been recognized as a human rights, human right in a number of international conventions, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which recognizes a right to free education, free, pr ...
and right to water and sanitation. Such situations are common in many parts of the world, especially in
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
and
South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
, but also in other regions. For example, in the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
and
Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
, 30% of schools do not provide adequate toilets and 37% of schools do not have access to adequate water supplies. The presence of
soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...
and
toilet paper Toilet paper (sometimes called toilet/bath/bathroom tissue, or toilet roll) is a tissue paper product primarily used to clean the human anus, anus and surrounding region of Human feces, feces (after defecation), and to clean the external gen ...
is very important, but is largely non-existent in many regions. Missing or inadequate doors and partitioning are observed in both high- and low-income countries, which can affect children's self-esteem, especially around
puberty Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a female, the testicles i ...
; in the case of girls, lack of
menstrual The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that makes pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of egg ...
hygiene management and privacy (such as the availability of functional toilet doors with locks, disposal facilities and menstrual hygiene products in schools, soap and toilet paper) can severely impact upon their well-being and is considered a form of violation of girls' rights. In Japan, there is still squat toilets in most schools, which most Japanese children are not able to use or find it uncomfortable, which causes constipation. The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...
has funded several research projects for provision of community, shared or school toilets in
developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. ...
since 2011, when they launched their "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge".


Prisons

It is today accepted in the countries of the
Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...
that a lack of basic privacy is a violation of fundamental rights. For example, the
European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
ruled in ''Szafrański v. Poland'' (2015) that the forcing of
prisoner A prisoner, also known as an inmate or detainee, is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in a prison or physical restraint. The term usually applies to one serving a Sentence (law), se ...
s to use the toilet without adequate privacy amounts to a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the
European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is a Supranational law, supranational convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Draf ...
.


In Vietnam

In
Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
, many cities, especially large and densely populated cities, are experiencing a severe shortage of public toilets due to lack of land for toilet construction. The general situation of toilets in
Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
is insufficient, poorly installed, and dirty. Many public places do not have toilets, leading to the situation of littering everywhere.


Gallery

File:Gents urinals at the Fountain Inn, Parkend.jpg, Gents' toilets inspired by
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
album ''
Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records. It is the last album the group recorded, although '' Let It Be'' (1970) was the last album completed before th ...
'' in
Parkend Parkend is a village, located at the foot of the Cannop Valley, in the Royal Forest of Dean, West Gloucestershire, England, and has a history dating back to the early 17th century. During the 19th century it was a busy industrial village with s ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
File:US_Restroom.jpg, Typical male public toilet in the United States File:The Opera Toilet (3436231949).jpg, The public toilet at the
Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...
has recorded music. File:French Squatter Toilet.jpg, Roadside squat toilet near
Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
, France File:Chinese-toilet-in-Beijing.jpg, Traditional squat toilets in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, China File:Toilet_Beijing_1.jpg, Modern sit toilet in Beijing Airport, China File:TWH Factory Building old squat toilet.jpg, Trough closet cubicles in a
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
factory File:Public_Toilet_1.jpg, Public toilet in
New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, U.S. File:Southern Savonia, Finland - panoramio (13).jpg, An outhouse toilet in
Rantasalmi Rantasalmi is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia regions of Finland, region, northwest of Savonlinna and northeast of Mikkeli. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area ...
,
South Savonia South Savo (or Southern Savonia; ; ) is a region in the south-east of Finland. It borders the regions of North Savo, North Karelia, South Karelia, Kymenlaakso, Päijät-Häme, and Central Finland. The total area of South Savo is 18,768.33  ...
, Finland File:Public toilet in Japan.jpg, Public toilet at Jozankei Hot Springs,
Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...
, Japan File:Clean toilet water rafting.jpg, Public toilets near
Kullu Kullu () is a municipal council town that serves as the administrative headquarters of the Kullu district of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is located on the banks of the Beas River in the Kullu Valley about north of the airport ...
,
Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...
, India File:Toilet tree.jpg, Public toilets near cinema in
Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
, India File:Toilets_in_Queensland_Art_Gallery_01.jpg, Sinks in the public toilet of the
Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galle ...
File:Toilet_block,_Informal_settlements_Kampala_(8410978706).jpg, Inside of cubicle in public toilet in informal settlement in
Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...
, Uganda File:Groningen Koolhaas Olaf 01.JPG, Public toilet by
Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theory, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Graduate School of ...
and Erwin Olaf in
Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...
, the Netherlands File:Toilet instructions IMG 2850.jpg, Instructions posted in women's public toilet, Germany File:Harrods gents IMG 0905.jpg, Gents' toilets in Harrods department store in London File:Vp squattoilet.jpg, Public
squat toilet A squat toilet (or squatting toilet) is a toilet used by Squatting defecation posture, squatting, rather than sitting defecation posture, sitting. This means that the posture for defecation and urination is to place one foot on each side of the t ...
in
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
File:Welsh Dragon Bar, Wellington.jpg, Welsh Dragon Bar, Wellington, New Zealand; formerly a public toilet File:Toilet-pictogram.svg, Toilet sign / AIGA badges File:Vespasienne Montréal.jpg, Vespasienne
pissoir A pissoir (also known in French as a ) is a French invention, common in Europe, that provides a urinal in public space with a lightweight structure. The availability of pissoirs aims to reduce urination onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets. ...
in Montréal, Quebec


See also

*
Accessible toilet Accessible toilets are Toilet, toilets that have been specially designed to better accommodate people with physical disability, physical disabilities. Persons with reduced mobility find them useful, as do those with weak legs, as a higher toilet ...
* Toilet room, in a private setting * EToilet * National Public Toilet Map (in Australia) *
Human right to water and sanitation The human right to water and sanitation (HRWS) is a principle stating that clean drinking water and sanitation are a universal human right because of their high importance in sustaining every person's life. It was recognized as a human right ...
*
Sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...
* Self-cleaning floor * Spray-and-vac cleaning, a method of professional cleaning * World Toilet Day * World Toilet Organization


References


External links


British Toilet Association
Campaigning for Better Public Toilets for All
American Restroom Association
America's advocate for the availability of clean, safe, well designed public restrooms
Australia's National Public Toilet Map
shows the location of more than 14,000 public and private public toilet facilities across Australia.
Public Toilets Database
Locations of public toilets in 18 countries. New locations and comments can be added. Detailed information includes the geographic coordinates and quality of the facility.
Needaloo The Uk Online Disabled Loo Locator

PHLUSH
Volunteer advocacy group for public toilets

{{DEFAULTSORT:Public Toilet Rooms Sanitation Equality rights Social inequality Women's health