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A Study Just Revealed Something Nasty About Bathroom Hand Dryers

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. . .The study, published by the American Society for Microbiology, did microbial surveys of bathrooms at the University of Connecticut to find out whether hot-air hand dryers draw in microbes and then blow them back out. The findings were gross — really gross.

“The full cycle goes like this: when you flush a toilet that doesn’t have a lid, the turbulence of the flush sends fecal particles into the air, where they hover in a miasmic cloud; when the dryers switch on, they pull these particles in through their intake, heat them up, and spray them onto your moist hands and other moist, hospitable surfaces where their bacteria can thrive,” BoingBoing reported . . .

Said the study:

S533 “was almost certainly dispersed throughout bathrooms in the research areas as spores, which would easily survive desiccation in room air, as well as the elevated temperatures in hand dryer air; however, growing or stationary-phase bacteria would not be nearly so hardy as spores,” the authors note. “However, the facile dispersion of one bacterial strain throughout a research facility should probably be a concern to risk assessors and risk managers when dispersion of potentially pathogenic bacteria is considered.”

In a final test, the researchers did a cursory look at some of the other bacteria the dryers were blowing around. They found that with or without a HEPA filter, the blowers stirred up potential pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus.

(Read more from “A Study Just Revealed Something Nasty About Bathroom Hand Dryers” HERE)

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The Data Suggests Unisex Bathrooms Are a Bonanza to Male Perverts

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One year ago in February 2015, the Vancouver Province ran a story on the rise of voyeurism in British Columbia, my home province, with the headline “How can we get men to stop doing this?” The sober reality is that the crime of voyeurism, almost always by males, may be virtually impossible to stop. Voyeurism is an enormous monster that lives in the shadows of our culture, hidden to many, but continually nourished by advancing technology, pervasive pornography, and increasing opportunity.

Voyeurism has been seen as a minor crime historically, but recording technology and victim statements are beginning to change that. One of the voyeurism cases the Province article cited was that of Jonathan Stringer, who hid a video camera in a unisex public washroom in Whistler, BC. One of his victims shared the effect it has had on her: “I have post-traumatic stress disorder from it. I was off work for a couple months, I was having problems sleeping and having weird dreams about being watched. It definitely affected me and made me fear for my safety.” More and more, voyeurism is starting to be recognized for what it is: sexual assault against women.

Advancing technology is also changing how seriously we perceive this crime. Not only is miniaturization making it easier for men to record women, but the fact that pictures and video can be stored, shared, and viewed over and over again, has significantly changed the nature of the crime from the traditional “peeping tom.”

Inherent in the question “How can we get men to stop doing this?” is the question of prevalence. Is voyeurism widespread, or limited to a few scattered predators? A look at the literature and studies on voyeurism reveals surprisingly little. In a day and age where every topic has seemingly been studied in minute detail, there is a glaring paucity of good information on the subject.

But the data that does exist is eye-opening. Templeman (1991) found that no less than 42 percent of college men in a rural sample reported that they had engaged in voyeurism. Bradford et al. (1992) reported that “of 443 adult males studied, 115 admitted to voyeurism” (cited from Krueger, 2016). Rye & Meaney (2007) found that 61 percent of the men in their university sample would engage in voyeurism if the likelihood of getting caught was 25 percent (cited from Krueger, 2016). (Read more from “The Data Suggests Unisex Bathrooms Are a Bonanza to Male Perverts” HERE)

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Legislation Introduced to Make Bathrooms Gender Neutral in NYC

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Aiming to curb gender bias and harassment in New York City, officials are readying a plan that would require businesses to convert one-person restrooms into gender-neutral facilities.

Legislation is being introduced that would require publicly available, single-occupancy restrooms in both public and private buildings to be designated as gender-neutral . . .

“This is a very important issue,” said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, whose office is releasing a report Friday recommending the changes. “It’s time to help individuals who identify as transgender to use the bathroom without fear of consequence.”

Eoghann Renfroe, the manager of transgender education and advocacy at the Empire State Pride Agenda, said Friday that Stringer’s proposal was needed in New York and was a common-sense approach to tackling one avenue of harassment.

“Being transgender, it’s not about the bathrooms. It’s that other people try to make it that way,” said Renfroe, a transgender man. “This step is simply just a way to make things more equal for everybody, to stop transgender people on a basis that doesn’t really exist.” (Read more from “Legislation Introduced to Make Single-Person Bathrooms Gender Neutral in NYC” HERE)

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