Free Republic

BEIJING -- Authorities here are always eager to show off their accomplishments, so when Beijing hosted the World Toilet Organization conference last week, delegates were given a grand tour of the city's toilets. "But this was not just any restroom. A Viennese waltz floated around the room, ''to relax and help patrons,"

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Arsenals of anti-bacterial sprays and other cleaners crowding cupboards in kitchens across the country could become unnecessary if the company that created windows that partially clean themselves can bring the technology indoors. Researchers at Penn State University and PPG Industries are trying to develop self-cleaning countertops that would keep bacteria from getting a toehold and also kill them on contact. "If you have a food preparation area, and you think you've cleaned it, the truth of the matter is if you go back in and take swabs, the bacteria are still there," David Diehl, a senior scientist...

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Bedbugs have bitten in 35 states, including Iowa, and continue to spread across the country, pest control experts say. Bedbugs are tiny bloodsucking insects that smell like soda pop syrup and are shaped like apple seeds. They live in bedding or furniture, or hide behind baseboards and wallpaper. They don't carry diseases, but they bite while you sleep, turning brownish-red after feeding on your blood. Infestations are on the rise across the country in metropolitan cities with high travel populations, according to Orkin Exterminating Co. Reports show a 300 percent increase in calls about bedbug infestation...

Innovative Enviro-Technology saves billions of gallons of water and reduces maintenance costs. Falcon Waterfree Technologies has partnerships in 22 countries with units installed in Heathrow Airport, the Rose Bowl, and the Taj Mahal. Former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, is on the company's Advisory Board of Directors. LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) November 17, 2003 -– Global demand for waterfree urinals is taking off, and the worldwide leader, Falcon Waterfree Technologies, a U.S.-based environmental technology firm is responding by expanding its international distribution network. From operations in five countries in 2000, the company now has partnerships with local...

Barbara Firsick's family roots touch on two centuries on the east side of Lancaster, but that history is now threatened, with the Los Angeles County Sanitation District 14 considering acquiring Firsick's land for agricultural use. The district wants the land because it needs some place to divert treated effluent water from the Lancaster Water Reclamation Plant, the county's sewer treatment plant. The treated effluent would be used on the agricultural land to water alfalfa. The district's effluent is now going into Piute Ponds, a manmade water fowl refuge, but the excess effluent is overflowing onto Rosamond Dry Lake bed, threatening...

Rats could have been cause of Sars outbreak Latest research into the spread of the virus at a Hong Kong apartment complex overturns previous ideas. Ien Cheng reports Published: August 24 2003 18:24 | Last Updated: August 24 2003 18:24 The World Health Organisation is studying new research that points to rattus rattus - the common black rat - as a key agent in the massive spread of Sars at Amoy Gardens, the Hong Kong apartment complex where 329 people contracted the deadly virus earlier this year. The research by Dr Stephen Ng, published this month in The Lancet, the...

"Taboo of poo" blocking progress on global sanitation crisis: Kyoto forum[slightly edited] KYOTO, Japan (AFP) Mar 17, 2003 Embarrassment and inhibitions over discussing human waste is one of the prime obstacles to resolving the global sanitation crisis, experts gathered at the Third World Water Forum said here Monday. Ensuring access to fresh water for 1.4 billion people is dominating discussions at the forum gathering 10,000 participants from 165 countries, but equally important is what to do with the waste generated by six billion people worldwide. Only one billion people use flush toilets that are connected to sewage systems. Another...

<p>For most of the world during most of human history, the public toilet has been a convenient bush, riverbank, street or wastewater canal.</p> <p>Though sophisticated water systems that included underground drainage and running water were developed in a number of ancient cultures, they usually served the rich. The poor just tapped into them at strategic spots.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON (AP) — The first public toilet in the Washington area subway system would get a one-year trial under a recommendation Thursday from transit officials. If the full Metro Board approves Feb. 20, a self-cleaning single stall unit made in New Zealand will be placed inside the fare gates of the Huntington station in Fairfax County, Va. The test run, with a price tag of $66,500, will monitor customer acceptance, feasibility, safety and cleanliness, officials said. ``We're going to gauge it and see what happens,'' Metro chief engineer Pat Porzillo said....