Do people spend more than 200 days in the toilet in their lifetime? Let's see what terrible diseases toilet renovations prevent! Severe ones can be fatal!

If we calculate based on a life span of 80 years, a person spends approximately 243 days in the toilet. Just as we are achieving “unobstructed” freedom, many people are contracting diseases because they cannot use the toilet[1].

So how did we achieve "toilet freedom" step by step in China?

An earth pit discovered in the ruins of the Banpo Village clan tribe in Xi'an 5,000 years ago is regarded as the origin of the Chinese toilet.

The real "pit toilet" appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Perhaps our ancestors who understood etiquette realized that excrement could no longer be made public.

"The Book of Zhou" mentioned the earliest public toilets. During the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, toilets built on the side of the road were called "road toilets", also known as official toilets, or public toilets.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, toilets entered people's homes. According to the "Mozi Banner", the depth of the toilet pit at that time was 12 feet (about 2.7 meters). "Zuo Zhuan" records: "Jin Jinggong was about to eat, and he went to the toilet and fell down and died." Jin Jinggong became the first monarch in history to die in the toilet.

Separation of toilets for men and women appeared in the Western Han Dynasty. During the Western Han Dynasty, some toilets had two toilets, which indicates that they were already divided into male and female toilets.

The toilet was invented in the Tang Dynasty. With its advantages of small footprint, light odor, and easy cleaning, the toilet became a must-have item for ordinary people. When the toilet is full, it cannot be dumped anywhere, but there is a special person to collect it - this was called "pouring worker" in the Tang and Song dynasties.

In the Song Dynasty, there were people who managed public toilets. In the Song Dynasty, there were public toilets managed by people who used incense to improve the smell of toilets. In Muliang, Tokyo, there were public toilets managed by people who were specially managed. The writer Ouyang Xiu said: "Most of the articles I wrote in my life were written on three places: on horseback, on the pillow, and on the toilet. These are the only places where you can think." It can be seen that the toilet environment at that time had improved.

In the Qing Dynasty, paid public toilets appeared. In the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, paid public toilets appeared. In 1864, Shanghai built China's first modern public toilet. In the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, paid public toilets appeared. In the late Qing Dynasty, urinating and defecating anywhere was prohibited.

In the early 20th century, during the Republic of China, flush toilets were introduced to Shanghai and only used by the rich. At that time, China was more like "a pit, two bricks, and a three-foot earth wall around it."

After the founding of New China, the phenomenon of humans and animals living together, people having no toilets and animals having no pens was still very common, virulent intestinal infectious diseases (such as dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera, etc.) were rampant, and the prevalence of ascariasis in children was as high as over 70%.

In 1952, the Patriotic Health Campaign[3] launched the campaign policy of "Two Managements and Five Reforms", which specifically included "One Management and One Reform" to "manage feces" and "reform toilets". Gradually, most areas in China basically achieved "people have toilets, livestock have pens, and poultry have nests".

After 2000, rural toilet reform became the focus of the toilet revolution in the new century. The achievements of the Patriotic Health Campaign have been commended by the World Health Organization many times. In 2013, the World Health Organization awarded the Chinese government the "Healthy (Sanitary) City Special Award".

The penetration rate of sanitary toilets in rural areas across the country has increased significantly from 7.5% in 1993 to 76.1% in 2014, reaching the penetration rate of "75% of sanitary toilets in rural areas[2]" pledged by the Chinese government in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

The incidence of fecal-oral diseases dropped from 37.5/100,000 to 22.2/100,000. Among them, the number of cases of dysentery decreased by 35.2%, the number of cases of typhoid fever decreased by 25.1%, the number of cases of hepatitis A decreased by 37.3%, the average removal rate of fecal coliform bacteria was 96.4%, and the average mortality rate of ascaris eggs was 91.62%.

According to data from the World Health Organization, in 2017, there were still 2 billion people in the world without access to toilets or latrines[4], resulting in 432,000 deaths from diarrhea each year.

Just imagine, what would happen if China had not transformed its toilets?

The lack of clean toilets will lead to poor hygiene, which in turn will promote the spread of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, polio, typhoid, intestinal parasites, and trachoma.

Therefore, in order to maintain the kingdom that toilets have established for us, we should take some corresponding measures.

When using a home toilet, you should ensure that it is clean and tidy, and wipe the toilet frequently with disinfectant wipes; keep the toilet well ventilated, moisture-proof and odor-free; do not place towels or toothbrushes on top of the toilet; put down the toilet lid when flushing the toilet to avoid (reduce) the spread of germs in the feces into the air.

There are more dangers when using public toilets. If public toilets are strictly disinfected and do not carry pathogens, using public toilets in a timely manner will not increase the incidence of infectious diseases. However, if public toilets carry sexually transmitted pathogens, it is easy to cause infectious pathogens and cause genital warts, genital herpes and other diseases. Therefore, when using public toilets, try to use disposable seat cushions or disinfect them to prevent disease infection.

Urine into the pool, defecate into the pit, and throw used paper towels into the trash can; flush the toilet after defecation; wash your hands frequently and turn off the faucet after washing your hands; do not dump sewage, throw garbage, or spit anywhere.

We go to the toilet an average of 6 to 8 times a day, at least 2,000 times a year. The toilet has become a place we must pass through every day. We need to do a good job of personal care in daily life. Because of different physical conditions, the probability of cross-infection will also have a certain deviation. We need to enhance the body's disease resistance, participate in more outdoor exercise, or eat highly nutritious foods. Once our own disease resistance is enhanced, we can also reduce the probability of infectious diseases.

Therefore, we should avoid the spread of diseases when using the toilet, use the toilet hygienically, and achieve comfortable and healthy use of the toilet.

References:

[1] Small toilets, big people’s livelihood[J]. Zhang Juan. Urban and Rural Construction. 2022(09)

[2] The historical practice of China’s rural toilet revolution[J]. Fu Yanfen. Journal of Environmental Health. 2019(05)

[3] Historical changes, policy logic and path direction of the CPC's health governance over the past 100 years[J]. Chen Xingyi, Zhai Shaoguo. Journal of Northwest University (Philosophy and Social Sciences). 2021(04)

[4] https://www.163.com/dy/article/GP4Q3DFE0534A4SB.html

This article is a work supported by Science Popularization China Starry Sky Project

Author: Xu Lang

Reviewer: Yang Yimin, Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Produced by: China Association for Science and Technology Department of Science Popularization

Producer: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.