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Toilet Cover

A retractable toilet cover for women's lavatories.
 
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Because women are unable to urinate standing up, toilet seats in public restrooms are often contaminated with urine from previous visitors. In order to use the facilities, the woman is then forced to squat several inches over the basin to urinate, rather than sit fully on the seat. This squating causes further contamination of the toilet seat. In fact, an unwillingness to sit fully on the toilet seat, regardless of the visable presence of urine, may be the root cause of all urinary contamination in female public lavatories. Were all women to sit fully on the seat, no contamination would occur.

In order to compel women to sit fully on the seat while using public facilites, I propose that all public toilets be equiped with a cover that would only retract to reveal the toilet basin when pressure sensors on the seat indicate that the 'customer' is fully seated. This would break the cycle of squating and greatly improve public hygene.

Seanicus, Nov 15 2002

Try these http://www.twinsupp...le=catalog51_0.html
disposable toilet seat covers [snarfyguy]

hygienic toilet seat cover http://www.thecleancover.com/
hygienic toilet seat cover [mattelement, Oct 21 2004]

North American Hygiene, inc. http://www.cleanseats.com/
Hands Free Hygienic Toilet Seat Protection System [jwags6, Oct 21 2004]


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Annotation:







       //compel women to sit fully on the seat // blimey, the bog police now is it?
po, Nov 15 2002
  

       hum, don't quite know what to say here... elaborate: what part of the toilet exactly is retracting? the toilet seat? And how exactly is it suppose to retract when someone is setting on it? And if you are setting where someone else's butt has been, how is that more hygenic? What if it was that time of the month?
drfowler, Nov 15 2002
  

       Because it is a toilet in a female public lavatory, there is no need for a 'raise-able' seat. So, I imagine a plastic cover a few inches below the seat, covering the entire basin, that would only retract when sensors in the seat detected that a person was fully seated.   

       Squating would then become more unattractive than sitting, because the squating user would splatter all over themselves.   

       This design assumes that fully sitting on the toilet is the use case that toilets were designed for in the first place. if bareskin is considered a problem, standard issue plastic and tissue seat protectors could be used as well.   

       Menstruation doesn't really seem to be problem. Do you have a specific example?
Seanicus, Nov 15 2002
  

       As a woman who finds the particular practice of other women urinating on toilet seats, when they could easily lift the seat and “hover” only over the bowl, especially obnoxious; this idea along with drfowler’s comments made me interested in finding some information on exactly how unsanitary it is to sit on a public toilet seat (free of urine, of course). However, after looking on google for a while, and looking through the Medline database, I have been quite unsuccessful. Does anyone know of any links to peer-reviewed (or otherwise credible) information sources about this subject?
Isis, Nov 15 2002
  

       Oh I see, I wonder what would happen if the sensor messed up? You know like they sometimes do in those restrooms that are suppose to automatically flush when you stand.   

       Menstruation would be a problem if they did not wear tampons and they "dripped" on your cover...unless of course there was a cover cleaner that wiped it clean as it retracted.   

       (isis) I am not sure where you can find that info, but if you are worried do as I do, put the disposable seat covers down. If not available use toilet paper. But, you can also buy your own disposable seat covers at most discount stores to carry with you.
drfowler, Nov 15 2002
  

       I like that idea. Maybe we can get some of that "spray on condom" stuff that I saw being used in another forum and spray it on our behinds for everyday protection.
drfowler, Nov 15 2002
  

       amused by the thought that it would peel off in one leaving me with a mould to make plaster cast images of my behind.
po, Nov 15 2002
  

       use it as a mold and create rubber butts. They would probably sell great in novelty stores.
drfowler, Nov 15 2002
  

       you have not seen the size of my backside - obviously.
make a good horses trough though.
po, Nov 15 2002
  

       I checked out some of the female urinals... they seem to have an even higher "ewww" factor than urine encrusted toilet seats. I can't image a public version being very popular.
Seanicus, Nov 15 2002
  

       There was a sort of funnel from Brazil on V Graham Notron once that would solve this. Instead of sitting, the user simply squats and expands the cone-shaped bit of paper to enhance aiming. After use, the paper is simply discarded.
NickTheGreat, Nov 17 2002
  

       This is a particularly interesting subject. It is curious that a cure to a problem is usually sought by adapting existing equipment, when perhaps a "back to formula" approach is far more appropriate. Sure enough, on a recent visit to our favourite country, Holland, my wife discovered the solution in a chemist, one that is so obvious you can't understand why nobody half-baked it already. Here is the link. http://www.plastuit.nl/eng/product.html
Le Champ, Nov 18 2002
  

       I went to a restaraunt in Holland once, and the toilet seat had a tubular plastic cover that rotated around the rim, presumably re-covering the seat with a fresh length of plastic from a roll somewhere.
Micky Dread, Nov 19 2002
  

       Seat retracts after use, is washed with a blast of very hot water, then disinfectant, then air. It emerges clean, dry, and ready for the next filthy bum. Use a series of seats (maybe three on a turntable?), so that one or two are always in the wall being cleaned or dried while one is extended for use.   

       Maybe you would pay extra for it -- pop a coin in the machine to get a new seat -- or you you could choose to use the seat your friend (you _do_ pee in pairs) has just used.
horripilation, Nov 19 2002
  

       www.TheCleanCover.com is a product that does this. With the wave of a hand over the sensor, the seat provides a fresh hygienic seat cover, made out of polyehtylene plastic. it not only reduces the spread of germs, diseases, and bacteria, it also reduces plumbing problems and paper waste. Not to mention providing a favorable image.
mattelement, Apr 08 2004
  


 

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