The installation and maintenance of toilet facilities in places of employment / United States Department of Labor, Women's Bureau.
- Date:
- 1933
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The installation and maintenance of toilet facilities in places of employment / United States Department of Labor, Women's Bureau. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![FOREWORD It is just as important to life to get rid of waste products as to secure the food and drink which are generally recognized as being vitally necessary. Individuals who do not or can not respond at proper times to the urge of nature to eliminate body wastes will sooner or later suffer as a result. Establishments not equipped to remove and dispose of body wastes will become menaces to the health of the occupants, as well as nuisances to all around. Towns and cities have suffered from epidemics of disease because the wastes from sick persons, or from healthful-appearing carriers of infection, have been allowed to enter the water or milk supplies. The provision of sanitary and adequate toilet facilities in places of employment is therefore highly important. It is perhaps needless to say that although many, probably most, employers wish to make proper provisions in this respect, yet there are always some who, perhaps through lack of information, negligence, or for financial reasons, fail to provide suitable toilet accommodations for their em- _ ployees until required to do so. Therefore laws and regulations have been formulated to protect the health and comfort of the workers by setting up standards which must be met. In order to serve their purpose, however, it is not sufficient for toilets merely to be provided. It is necessary that they be properly: installed, be equipped to fulfill their purpose in an adequate manner, and be cleanly maintained. Improper installation of flushing equip- ment may result in serious contamination of the drinking water in the pipes, with resultant grave danger of the spread of such diseases as typhoid fever, dysentery, and the diseases characterized by diarrhea, which may be so important to the health of children in particular. It occasionally happens that measures intended to improve condi- tions are found to have unexpected drawbacks. An example is the use of valves for flushing toilets directly connected to the water- supply pipes of the building. Such direct flushing valves have the advantage of giving a supply of water without the delay caused by waiting for a flush tank to fill. On the other hand, such valves may constitute a menace to the purity of the water supply unless those who install the fixtures guard against the siphonage of the contents of the toilet bow] into the water pipes during periods of low-water pressure, which occur from time to time, owing to a great variety of causes. Aside from the danger to health from improper installations, ques- tions of comfort, separation of sexes, seclusion, and convenience are also of outstanding importance. It obviously does little good to have a toilet conveniently located, if it is so poorly maintained, so lacking in privacy, or so unclean that the employees will not use it, but preferably will go to distant toilet rooms instead. Neither is a toilet of much use if the supply of water for flushing purposes is so Inadequate in amount or so variable in pressure that there are fre- quent occasions when the contents of the bowl can not be flushed out. People often will delay attention to the needs of their bodies under .VIT](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3216984x_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
