The Guardian: Food couriers denied toilet access at UK’s top chains during lockdown. “Some of the UK’s biggest restaurant chains, including McDonald’s, KFC, Nando’s, Subway and Wagamama, have been illegally denying toilet access to the couriers that have helped keep them in business during the lockdown. Couriers claim government laws stipulating that people making deliveries […]
Baltimore Sun: John Waters bequeaths his art collection to Baltimore Museum of Art, whose bathrooms will be named in his honor. “John Waters, Baltimore’s self-proclaimed ‘Pope of Trash,’ announced Wednesday that he’s bequeathing some of the most precious things he owns — approximately 375 prints, paintings and photographs — to the Baltimore Museum of Art. […]
NY1: What Happens When Homeless New Yorkers Need a Restroom in the Pandemic?. “Finding a public restroom during the coronavirus pandemic has become a challenge, especially among homeless New Yorkers. With some businesses shuttered and others no longer letting customers inside, this is a new reality.”
Phys .org: Using a public restroom? Mask up!. “Think you don’t need to worry about COVID-19 while using a public restroom? A group of researchers from Yangzhou University in China recently reported that flushing public restroom toilets can release clouds of virus-laden aerosols for you to potentially inhale. If that’s not cringeworthy enough, after running […]
Route Fifty: The Pandemic Has Closed Public Restrooms, and Many Have Nowhere to Go. “The lack of restrooms has become an issue for delivery workers, taxi and ride-hailing drivers and others who make their living outside of a fixed office building. For the city’s homeless, it’s part of an ongoing problem that preceded COVID-19.”
New York Times: Flushing the Toilet May Fling Coronavirus Aerosols All Over. “Scientists have found that in addition to clearing out whatever business you’ve left behind, flushing a toilet can generate a cloud of aerosol droplets that rises nearly three feet. Those droplets may linger in the air long enough to be inhaled by a […]
New York Times: We’re All in the Bathroom Filming Ourselves. Not this old woman. “Most home bathrooms are well lit and have nice, bright acoustics. Unlike the kitchen, living room or even bedroom, bathrooms are private spaces, where parents and siblings are trained to not barge in. It’s almost inevitable that they would become the […]
Quartz: China launched a toilet-finding platform to help identify 330,000 public toilets. “To mark World Toilet Day, which this year fell on Sunday (Nov.19), China unveiled a similar platform, the ‘National Public Toilet Cloud.’ It’s from China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and is available via an app and a WeChat public account, a […]
The Refugee Restrooms Web site now has an app. “In 2014, REFUGE Restrooms was created ‘to provide restroom access for transgender, intersex and gender nonconforming individuals,’ … The service began as a website originally, but has recently become an application that can be downloaded for free on both Android and Apple devices.”
WRAL: Yelp to help customers find gender-neutral bathrooms. “Yelp, the crowd-sourced company specializing in online reviews, is wading into the national debate over transgender people’s bathroom access with a new feature that will enable consumers to search for businesses offering gender-neutral restrooms.”