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Here’s Why Automatic Toilet Seat Covers Might Not Be So ‘Hygienic’

Jan. 30, 2013 8:26pm

Have you ever been in a public restroom where the toilets have an automatic plastic cover that whirls itself around the seat to provide a hygienic surface for the next user? If you’ve passed through O’Hare International Airport and used the facilities, chances are you have at least seen them.

Such seat covers are now the center of a controversy in the airport for a couple reasons.

First of all, they have been found to be have a flaw that can refute some of their hygienic purpose. It turns out that if toilet water is spit up during a flush or if urine makes its way onto the bowl, the liquid then gets dragged onto the plastic cover where the next person is supposed to sit.

The Chicago Sun-Times investigated the issue in person at the airport after receiving a tip from a reader. Watch this video to see how the supposedly hygienic covers might not be so clean at times after all:

Similar automated toilet seat covers could have the same issue.

Still, ABC News reported the “SaniSeats” manufacturer North American Hygiene, which sells them to the O’Hare contractor, saying how the Sun-Times reporter squirted orange juice all over the bowl is not generally how the toilet would be treated.

“You can take any product today and play it around with it enough to make it not work the way it should be working,” Jerold Wagenheim with North American Hygiene Inc., told ABC News, noting the seat covers have been used at the airport for 13 years without a complaint like this.

ABC also contacted O’Hare officials who said they have not received complaints and that they are looking into a water pressure issue that could contribute to situations like that demonstrated by the Sun-Times.

The second bit of the controversy is that the covers at O’Hare come from a new five-year contract with United Maintenance Co. Inc., which was found to have sold half of its company last year without reporting it, according to the Sun-Times.

It becomes more of an issue when the $99.4 million deal was opposed by Service Employees International Union, which preferred the seat’s previous vendor, according to the Chicago Business’ Greg Hinz.

Hinz wrote that officials said the failure to report was “inadvertent” and that the city will not be taking action regarding the new contractor. But this doesn’t sit well with Hinz.

“A company involved in an extremely controversial city bid deal sells half of itself in the middle of the bid process and doesn’t tell anyone until after? And the city says that’s OK?” Hinz wrote.

(H/T: NPR)

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Comments (26)

  • Slimer123
    Posted on January 31, 2013 at 10:57am

    Crazy idea, but wouldn’t simply lifting the seat while it’s rotating fix the problem? I know it actually requires a teeny tiny bit of effort, and that is asking an awful lot of those whom expect to have everything done automatically. I don’t see anything wrong with the old fashioned paper covers.

    Report this comment

    Slimer123  
    • DebateMe
      Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:48pm

      @Slimer123
      Lol have you ever been to a public restroom? Not only can you NOT expect the public to do anything manual, you CAN expect them to go out of their way to make the restroom as disgusting as possible. Creating disgusting public restroom disasters is a sort of American pass time.

      This is just an attempt to use technology to try to automate cleanliness which I have no problem with as most people are absolute pigs in public restrooms creating a lot of extra unneccessary bathroom cleanup for establishments. But it looks like the manufacturer might have to go back to the drawing board.

      Report this comment

      DebateMe  
    • Bluebonnet
      Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:53pm

      Who wants to lift the toilet seat? Most of these people don’t even wash their hands after they use the toilets.

      Report this comment

      Bluebonnet  
  • jamestoms
    Posted on January 31, 2013 at 6:30am

    It would work if you had Obama, Biden, Holder, Pelosi, Reid team licking the seats clean, that’s all their good for and thats being too KinD!

    Report this comment

    jamestoms  
  • media-bias-steals-elections
    Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:18am

    God forbid the TSA to clean a toilet bowl, that’s not in their public safety description?

    Report this comment

    media-bias-steals-elections  
  • Kupo
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:06pm

    People who are OCD about immaculate toilet seat cleanliness are absurd, in my opinion. Faucets, doorknobs, keyboards, cell phones – all far, FAR cleaner than public toilet seats. And since all of the aforementioned objects are handled with the hands instead of the butt cheeks, germ transfer is far likelier to make it to your mouth and get you sick.

    Report this comment

    Kupo  
  • barber2
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 9:33pm

    Why hasn’t SENSI given us his scoop on this important issue ? Seems right up his alley….

    Report this comment

    barber2  
    • Fubared
      Posted on January 30, 2013 at 9:51pm

      Perhaps too close to home. Sad he could never stand to relieve himself like a real man. Ask him about being the hero of Fallujah 2, that is a great story he loves to relive.

      Report this comment

      Fubared  
    • YOURSENSEI
      Posted on January 30, 2013 at 10:56pm

      This is what you must know:

      It’s clear you boys are having a hard time entertaining each other.

      It is so.

      Report this comment

      YOURSENSEI  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:19am

      BARBER2, LOL, its like FUBARED said Ms WANG-DANG-DOODLE never worries about this since WANG-DANG always sits to pee.
      It is so.

      Report this comment

      RJJinGadsden  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:20am

      FUBARED, That is one cat who will never understand what a piss tube is.

      Report this comment

      RJJinGadsden  
  • Diane TX
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:42pm

    All you have to do is hit the button on the wall one or two more times, until the mess is gone.

    Report this comment

    Diane TX  
  • spirited
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:39pm

    “…squirted orange juice all over the bowl is not generally how the toilet would be treated.”
    ~~~~~> Really?

    Jerold Wagenheim out to pay better attention to the standers’ & the squatters’ aim.

    ~~~~> Oh, and while he’s at it: What about all that other ‘matter’ at the rear top of the bowl?

    Report this comment

    spirited  
  • MrButcher
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:39pm

    Just crap on the floor.

    Problem solved.

    Report this comment

    MrButcher  
  • Fubared
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:37pm

    What? I just use the nearest moped and use the ChiSun times for tp. It’s green all around.

    Report this comment

    Fubared  
  • nacilbuper
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:36pm

    I knew OJ did it!

    Report this comment

    nacilbuper  
  • piper60
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:34pm

    This is a prime example of why I hate public restrooms.

    Report this comment

    piper60  
  • civilwarcometh
    Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:33pm

    So i guess Glenn is out of the business of saving the country and keeping us informed of what is really going on?

    Report this comment

    civilwarcometh  

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