To any newcomers, I am trying to keep everyone, of all demographics, safe. I have researched for several years why people come to harm in non-domestic toilets.
In terms of toilets deaths it is drug related, or self harm, or a medical incident from a diagnosed or undiagnosed condition. People with invisible disabilities (such as those with heart conditions, epilepsy, diabetes) are of particular risk of collapsing inside a toilet. They can then be left for hours if even days inside a cubicle if no one knows they are there. A common place to have a cardiac arrest either at home or out-of-home is on the toilet. It’s where people go when they feel ill and when you strain you put pressure on your heart. To help people survive a medical emergency (eg. use a defibrillator) you must know that they have collapsed.
People can also be assaulted within a cubicle. A private cubicle is more attractive as the occupants can not be seen. Perpetrators are male. Victims are women and children but could be of any demographic.
If you read my posts you can see the conundrum here. You can’t just change female toilets to mixed sex toilets by changing the sign on a door. You have to change the design of the toilets. Mixed sex toilets have to be private (floor to ceiling), resistant to the passage of sound and have the sinks inside them.
Healthwise it is proven there are more pathogens in mixed sex toilets. The air and surfaces will be covered in the microbes from the plume created from the previous occupants flushes. Ventilation can be restricted. Cleaning with mops and lots of bleachy water under the doors and partitions then letting it drain away can’t be done in full floor-ceiling private designs.
So, if you want mixed sex facilities, what you are doing is advocating for private designs - ironically these are least bad for healthy men.
The ONLY designs in England that the HSE say can have door gaps are single sex designs within single sex environments. At the time of the 1992 legislation, the standards for toilets recommended gaps for cleaning, ventilation, supervision and prevention of misuse. That’s why the legislation said if you had mixed sex toilets, they had to be in separate rooms.
I helped save the life of a young woman because I saw she has collapsed on the floor of a toilet cubicle in time so she could be resuscitated. That is why I am so passionate about single sex toilets. I know they have the ability to save lives and prevent assaults by design.