November 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 53

PHOTO COURTESY OF RATCHAPON VIA ADOBE STOCK

Making Public Restrooms
Safe During COVID-19
By Kip Earlywine

ome people will experience fear or anxiety when using a public restroom in the coronavirus (COVID-19) era. During this
time, we should strive to protect visitors the best we can. Here
are some ways to keep your public restrooms safe during the
COVID-19 pandemic:

Restrict Access to Some
Fixtures to Create
Separation Between Users
The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) has broadly recommended people keeping
a distance of six feet from all
others at all times, when possible.
Unfortunately, most restrooms
were not designed with this kind
of distancing in mind - sinks
and urinals are generally about
half that distance away from each
other. By taping off or covering
every other sink or urinal, it sends
a very clear message for users to
avoid them.

Make Your Hand
Dryers Inoperative
It is believed that COVID-19
spreads primarily through tiny
water droplets expelled through
the breath of infected individuals.
Hand driers produce high-speed
turbulence that keeps these droplets suspended in the air indefinitely, making the air within the
restroom unsafe. Disabling these
devices and replacing them with
a touchless paper towel dispenser are strongly recommended.
Those paper towels also can be
useful for visitors to use while
touching the door handle when
leaving the restroom.

Remove as Much Surface
Contact as Possible
Replace existing fixtures with
hands-free activators. This could
include toilets, urinals, faucets,
soap dispensers, paper towel dispensers and hand-sanitizing liquid
dispensers. Typically, these are
battery operated and some are relatively easy to install. If possible,
keep the entry door open (or remove it completely). For outdoor
restrooms, consider using a privacy screen in front of the entrance
to maintain privacy with an open
door.

Frequently Reﬁll Soap and
Hand-Sanitizer Dispensers
With people washing their hands at
higher rates than before, there may
be people going into your restroom
just to wash their hands and nothing else! You can expect these supplies to need more frequent maintenance than in years past. This is
one of the simpler, yet more critical, things you can do to make your
restroom safer.

Maximize Ventilation
Introducing outside air into the restroom space through ventilation
can remove airborne droplets quickly. This is the easiest and most effective way to reduce airborne trans-

Restricting access from some ﬁxtures
within public restrooms can help keep
patrons at a safe distance from each
other during the COVID-19 pandemic.

mission of pathogens. Therefore,
make sure that you have open windows and vents in the restroom. If
you have a bathroom fan, it should
be set to run continuously.

Disinfect Fixture Handles
and Buttons Frequently
Transmission of coronavirus may
come from touching common surfaces that an infected person had
previously touched. We recommend frequent disinfection of any
permanent surface a visitor might
touch with their hands, particularly
the door handles on the stalls and
entry door.

Easing the Public's
Concerns
It's best to find ways to keep your
visitors at safe distances while minimizing their need to touch things
and maximizing the air flow and
access to hand sanitation. If precautions are taken, users should
feel reasonably safe using public
restrooms.
Kip Earlywine is Blog Editor for Green Flush
Restrooms (kip@greenﬂushrestrooms.com).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | N OV E M B E R 2 02 0 |

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November 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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