In this presentation, we journey around the world and learn about sanitation practices (or the lack thereof) in various countries. The gamut runs from O.D. (Open Defecation – the practice whereby 15% of the world’s population go out in fields, bushes, forests, open bodies of water, or other open spaces rather than using the toilet to defecate) to the high-tech toilets found in Japan. We will explore:
- What country is using drones to combat open defecation?
- When is World Toilet Day and Why?
- What do pious Muslim men carry in their turbans?
- How does one use the squat latrines of India?
- What country had the motto “Toilets before Temples”?
- How was waste handled in medieval castles?
- Were trench latrines really used in World War I?
- What once lined the London Bridge?
- What percent of American’s want their toilet paper to roll over the top?
- When was the flushing toilet invented?
- Why was the Groom of the Open Stool a coveted position in Tudor England?