Toilets

One of the many wonderful toilets of Budapest, Hungary. Photo Credit: Troy K.

Taking a shit is a satisfying experience.

Too crass? Let me try again ...

Passing excrement from the bowels through the anus is elating.

Hmm ... I'll give it another try.

Discharging waste products from the body through the anal opening is a spiritual experience.

Getting closer ... one last try:

Finding a vacant toilet when you really have to move your bowels is an instant dopamine releaser, and an empty bowel elicits feelings that border on euphoria. (This is the one)

An old Jamaican nurse once asked me, 'Who is King, the bowel or the brain?' then passionately answered: 'Mun, the bowel is King, because the brain cannot think if the bowel is blocked.'

So many people have an aversion to talking about bowel movements, even though it's something all of us do. Even the word toilet, which I think is a great word, is avoided as we "go to the restroom -- take a trip to the ladies room -- take a bathroom break -- go number two or, my personal favorite, powder one's nose." Those of us who are lucky enough to have toilets use them faithfully, but don't pay them the respect they deserve.  Maybe if all of us wore a tiny gold-plated toilet on a chain around our necks, we would be less afraid to talk about our bowels. Maybe that would save people's lives and make them unafraid to seek medical attention for bowel-related problems. Maybe that would force society to offer more public toilets, rather than allow businesses to post signs that say 'Restrooms for Patrons Only.' How dare business owners who turn away a person seeking the use of a toilet? The further degradation of a normal, healthy, bodily function.

The World Health Organization estimates that 2.6 billion people don't have access to or the luxury of using and flushing a toilet each day. This includes over 600,000 homeless people in America. Unsanitary conditions lead to a plethora of preventable diseases and early deaths for millions of people who desperately need the toilets that we're so embarrassed to talk about.

The National Institutes of Health estimate that 60 to 70 million Americans suffer from diseases of the digestive tract that range from hemorrhoids to diverticulitis to irritable bowel syndrome to colon cancer. Our inability to discuss our bowels and the lack of public toilets in our society add to the problems of millions of people who suffer bowel-related conditions -- ones they are embarrassed to discuss because of society's need to not talk about something as vile and, at the same time, life sustaining as healthy bowel movements.

Add to this discussion the fact that technology has not advanced the flushing toilet in hundreds of years, and human waste is a prevalent and ongoing burden to our health and environment. Advances in sanitation seems like a no-brainer and should be top priority for genius scientists, since all of us are the glorious creators of human waste (a.k.a. bowel movements) yet we rarely hear everyday discussions of how to rid the world of our own stool.

In all fairness, there are droves of researchers who discuss and work on sanitation issues daily, and I don't wish to discredit their passion or their work. A simple YouTube search offers video after video of people dedicated to improving toilets and waste management. 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced the winner of their "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" that urged researchers at some of the top universities to develop "next-generation” toilets that will deliver safe and sustainable sanitation to the 2.5 billion people worldwide who don’t have it."

Hats off to the honorable winner - California Institute of Technology (Caltech).