Thai Health Ministry Campaigns For End Of Squat Toilet Use To Lessen Arthritis Risks

[webfact]

Health Ministry campaigns for end of squat toilet use to lessen arthritis risks

file photo

BANGKOK, April 30, 2013 (NNT) – The Health Ministry is continuing its campaign that calls on the whole country to give up the use of squat toilet to lessen risks of arthritis.

Deputy Health Minister Cholanan Srikaew said on Monday that the Cabinet-approved 2013-2016 Public Toilet Development Master Plan is intended to encourage members of the public to realize the negative health impact of the use of squat toilet.

Mr. Cholanan said such a traditional toilet can be unsafe and cause arthritis, if used for a long time, particularly among the elderly.

He also noted that the end of squat toilet use will be in favor of some 600,000-800,000 physically-challenged, obese people and pregnant women in Thailand.

The Deputy Health Minister cited the ministry’s survey conducted in the past 3 years in saying that as much as 86 percent of toilets in Thailand are squat toilets.

He went on to say that, under the Public Toilet Development Master Plan, there are 12 public areas in the country, such as petrol stations, restaurants, government offices, hospitals, schools, department stores and religious places, that must have at least one sitting toilet by 2016.

At the same time, the Health Ministry aims to encourage up to 90 percent of households to switch to the western-style toilets within 3 years.


-- NNT 2013-04-30

[ZhouZhou]

it could be also something that keeps you fit and healthy.

Waiting for some fitness guru of mordern the health&lifestyle industry who promotes squat toilets as the natural way. as the little daily exercise everybody can do.

[Locationthailand]

This is old news from last year. More rhetoric, no action - so far.

[geriatrickid]

This is old news from last year. More rhetoric, no action - so far.

It is up to the business community to respond. The international restaurant chains have done their part. They even have running water at the sinks with soap. Many Thai restaurants do not even have soap so that the employees can wash their hands after emptying their bowels.

[theblether]

When I see a squat toilet I see many risks and arthritis is not one of them.

[jackr]

And what to do in dissuading the millions from an impromptu squat on the floor?

Anyway, hands up those who plonk their butt right down on there.

[brfsa2]

How ignorant !

Squat toilet provides so many health benefits and prevents so many internal diseases. arthritis is NOT cause by this toilet. it's cause by many other factors..

I'm not going to explain in detail because I have already done so. just google for "Squat Toilet benefits"

[brfsa2]

When I see a squat toilet I see many risks and arthritis is not one of them.

For example? what do you "see" as risks? have you "got" any of them? if not, then you're hypothetical.

[slapout]

The health minister may want to look at more pressing health hazords for the general public, than squat tolets, in his quest for budget money.

If you have ever observed the village people, squating to visit , eat, drink, gossip, etc, this seems to be the norm, (to squat)

The first time I observed this position, I was told that more people could crowd in a circle in this position, rather than the (what I call the temple position), plus there were not enough chairs avaliable.

[chooka]

it could be also something that keeps you fit and healthy.

Waiting for some fitness guru of mordern the health&lifestyle industry who promotes squat toilets as the natural way. as the little daily exercise everybody can do.

They are hard for the elderly to use.

[8ighty1ne]

i'm assuming the whole point is that western-style toilets can be used by everyone and anyone, whether overweight, pregnant, old and frail.. i wouldn't say i'm severely overweight or anything, but i'm not a small guy and using one of those squat toilets isn't a pleasant experience. i'm sure my pregnant gf would also agree it's not comfortable for her to squat right now either. all down to personal preference i suppose, but it would be nice to have the option of a western-style toilet in more public places, in particular at service stations. i don't really frequent any other places with squat bogs

[geriatrickid]

The reason for the change is because of the large number of slip and falls associated with the elderly and people with disabilities. Thailand has an aging population and people are living longer.

This article sums up the plight of the elderly in asia.

http://www.scmp.com/article/540498/fear-public-squat-toilets-confines-elderly-homes

Edited April 30, 2013 by geriatrickid

[ragamuffin]

I have problems with my knee joints and squats cause me severe pain. I don't think it's very healthy to splatter pee all over the floor and legs either and I honestly don't understand how Thai females manage to not do so when using these toilets.

[chooka]

These things are absolutely filthy and I will never sit on one of them.

[newermonkey]

Why don't they just come "clean" and admit the facts? headline should not be:

Health Ministry campaigns for end of squat toilet use to lessen arthritis risks

should be:

Health Ministry campaigns for end of squat toilet use to lessen xxxx and piss on trousers risks

Is the government going to make them illegal then?

Edited April 30, 2013 by metisdead

[DRONGOH]

You'll get arthritis from putting in your mouth what should go down the hole like the one in the pic.

Most likely, the health minister has a "deal" with the CRAPP mob.

[siamnatural]

well, I think the TAT is just brimming with amazing Thailand ideas for the tourism business. 'Let's protect them by giving them a good western potty place to relieve themselves' (and a free wipe with real tissue too) Thank you Thailand!

[Mrjlh]

Now to teach the people "how to flush"! Even faranges! Most disgusting thing is to use the toilet that hasn't been flushed! The simplest action that too many are just too lazy to do. Pull the lever!

[rametindallas]

The reason for the change is because of the large number of slip and falls associated with the elderly and people with disabilities. Thailand has an aging population and people are living longer.

This article sums up the plight of the elderly in asia.

http://www.scmp.com/article/540498/fear-public-squat-toilets-confines-elderly-homes

so just add more toilets for the handicapped

[Chris Lawrence]

Why don't they just come "clean" and admit the facts? headline should not be:

Health Ministry campaigns for end of squat toilet use to lessen arthritis risks

should be:

Health Ministry campaigns for end of squat toilet use to lessen xxxx and piss on trousers risks

Is the government going to make them illegal then?

But honestly how low can you go. My body won't let me squat that far......

[theblether]

When I see a squat toilet I see many risks and arthritis is not one of them.

For example? what do you "see" as risks? have you "got" any of them? if not, then you're hypothetical.

Oh really? A member on Thaivisa recently complained that he was fed up with people asking him what it was like in Thailand.....I advised him to tell the truth. Here's what I said......

Och you're living the fantasy life in their minds......stop being so petty minded and just tell them the truth. Thailand is a nightmare!!

Your day begins with the Imam wailing at 5.30 in the morning cos you've just found out why that hotel was so cheap on the internet, he quietens down after 5 minutes but now you can hear the effin cockerels trying to impersonate him and the Soi dogs barking at the World. You wander outside in a dazed and get harassed by annoying wee women wanting you to buy pre-packed lunch boxes for the poor Monks who stand there silently beseeching you not to buy the calorie and sugar laden monstrosities contained within the bag, those poor men have to wander back to the Temple with 30 bags of the same crap food every day in the week......

After parting with your hard earned money you would like to cross the road to the 7/11 without being killed, but that's well nigh an impossibility, while waiting for a gap in the traffic some nutter runs past you with a 2 stroke monstrosity belching out more oil particles than a Refinery Fire, wasting your favourite shirt. It's not even 7.00am.

Angered by that you decide to walk down to the next 7/11 about 200 metres away on the same side of the road, on the way down you fall into several holes in the pavement, stub your toe 3 times and sprain your ankle. Bleeding, covered in oil, and hobbling, you eventually make it to 7/11, and instead of buying a pint of milk and some cereal bars you end up having to buy some Elastoplast and support bandages. You ask where they keep said supplies and the wee female behind the counter looks at you with a blank stare and says......" no have ".

Realising your mistake you make your way to the pharmacy, not quite open yet so you wait outside cursing this effin country and forget that you haven't put on any sun lotion yet, by the time the pharmacy opens your still bleeding, hobbling and you look like a radiation victim.

Now stocked up with after-sun, bandages, and elastoplast you make your way home, then remember that your hungry, so you nip in to the localThai cafe as you haven't got much money left on you and select from their breakfast range which consists of 3 parts chilli plus one part some other random foodstuff. Mouth burning you get to your room and start to fix the damage of the morning walk, you pick the scab on your toe and bleed all over the sheets, which is going to cost you 1800 baht when room service see it. Exhausted by the sun, you crash out for a couple of hours and when you wake you leave a layer of skin on the sheets, that's really done it now.

It's 11.00am, you've blown well over 2000 baht in incidental damages, and you start to wonder why you like this place, you go for a shower, leave another layer of skin behind, then slip on the way out as non-slip tiles are apparently banned in Thailand. You bang your head and open a bleeding wound above your eye, you grab a towel to stem the blood loss then realize that's you just blown another 400 baht. The cleaning lady is really gonna love you.

it's now approaching Mid-day.....you decide you want to go get some lunch, you get changed into your favourite shorts and make your way to the lift, you do an inconsequential wee fart and get that dreaded follow through feeling, that 3 part chilli one part breakfast has come back to haunt you. You waddle back to your room beseeching the gods to not let it run down your legs or mark your best shorts, just when you get to your door that real cute girl that you've been pursuing for weeks comes out her room next door and flashes you a wonderful smile, which turns to horror when she gets a whiff of the smell and sees the little brown river running down your legs.

Disconsolate you enter your room, go for another shower, come out and inspect your shorts and Calvins and no, sorry......they're ruined too. You spend an hour in the toilet excavating your bowels and your oh so thankful for the Thai bum gun at this point as your seriously stinging.

You get changed, make your way back to the lift with trepidation, promising to never trust a fart again, and successfully make it down stairs, just in time to see the cute girl waiting for the lift back up. She can't look you in the eye, any notion of romantic contact gone forever in a river of sh*t.

It's now after 1.00pm, you sit in a cafe as close to the hotel as possible as your still not sure of your bowel movements. The temp rises to over 35 degrees and the sweats trickling down your back, the locals look at you as if your a weirdo from outer space as your face goes progressively redder and you start to shed skin into your beer. Your bowels play up and you know you ain't making it back to the hotel so you rush to the Thai toilet in the cafe and dread of dread, it's a squat WC, you fumble with your belt and oops, sorry, just a little too late you squat down, another pair of shorts ruined and the results of breakfast sprayed all over the toilet. Almost in tears you slip on the mandatory silk like flooring and fall back into your, ahem, breakfast. You crawl back up to your knees and back reach for the bum gun in the hope of at least fixing the searing pain from your ring, no bum gun.....it's a bucket of water. How the eff do you do that????

After several attempts at cleaning yourself up refill the bucket and try to wash away your, ahem, breakfast. After about 30 minutes you emerge from the toilet to a look of horror from the cafe owner. That white T-shirt was a bad mistake, you look like a sewer rat. You pay your bill, ( it doesn't matter how bad you look or smell, the Thais still want their money ) and you make your way back to your hotel via the shadows, you get into the lift unseen and just when you step out.......

Cute girl is waiting for the lift......she visibly gags when she sees you so feeling a bit tearful and humiliated you decide to spend the rest of the day in your room. THe AC is broken so you call reception, who after 12 attempts of you trying to explain the problem, send you two boiled eggs an incense stick.

Now sweating to death you decide to go on TV to appeal for help, but the internet is down in the hotel, so your stranded......you contemplate calling reception re the internet but your scared of what they'll send you next, ,maybe a baby buffalo and a crash helmet?. You decide to watch TV but True keeps disappearing into a blur so you end up watching Thai soaps.

Contemplating suicide.......your relieved when the sun goes down and your bowels finally settle down. You get changed, head out the door feeling relatively pucker, and flag down a tuk-tuk. You take your standard 80 baht journey to yourbfavourite bar area and the driver demands 200 baht, you end up in a stand up argument in the street which ends when you see a squadron of tuk-tuks heading your way at high speed, you pay the money and wai sheepishly, being sheepish is getting to be quite a habit.

You sit in your favourite bat and try to act all cool and nonchalant......unfortunately the cute girl has been in and told all the staff of your travails so they keep their distance and snigger among themselves. You decide the day can't get any worse so you order up a bottle of whisky and proceed to drown your sorrows. In your rush to get out you forgot your mossy repellent, and the staff won't come anywhere near you, so you no become smorgasboard of tastes for the local mossy population, and you spend the evening slapping your body hard while squealing cos you keep forgetting you've got sunburn.

You stagger home and the most beautiful girl you've ever seen emerges from the shadows, " hellllllo?......where you go????" well that's your day made, in your drunken state your instantly in love and you take this Thai Jennifer Lopez back to your room for some boogie woogie, she strips off and you ain't ever seen breasts as fulsome as this on a Thai lady, wow........then one step beyond.......you ain't ever seen tackle as big as this in your life. Repulsed.....you invite this goddam ladyboy to leave the premises, she ( he?? ) won't go without a 1000 baht payment, you ain't paying a penny so the ladyboy shows you her best Muay Thai moves and beats you to a pulp until you beg for mercy and give her ( him? ) 2000 baht to stop.

Bleeding, ( again) bruised battered and skin peeling from you like a casting snake, you whimper in your bed and feel a high degree of self loathing cos the ladyboy was better hung than you.

Don't worry though.......it won't be long till the Imam starts to wail and so will begin another day in Paradise.

[theblether]

^^ You'll note that squat toilets have a central part in that story.

Just sayin'

[Thaddeus]

When I see a squat toilet I see many risks and arthritis is not one of them.

For example? what do you "see" as risks? have you "got" any of them? if not, then you're hypothetical.

Arthritis is caused by a LACK of nutrition!!!

quitting junk, heated oil, sugar, fried food, sauce, soda, fast food, batter, milk, cheese, etc.. THIS WILL STOP YOUR BODY FROM GETTING WORSE.

But then how do you prevent insanity.

[chooka]

Even if they replaced all the squats it will still take a generation until people get the hang of western toilets. I have been into many toilets (western) in Thailand and you can still see where people climb up and squat on the rim of the bowl. (dirty footprints) They will have to run a major television campaign to teach people how to use these bloody western style toilets.

[laislica]

Oh, toilet Bliss, yesterday in Bangkok.

We had three hours to kill whilst a certain Embassy legalised some papers for us so:
We walk walk toward the BTS but got distracted and then diverted into the Terminal 21 building.

We both needed a visit to the loo and my wife went first.

On her return she said that the toilets were quite nice, in fact really very nice.

I therefore decided to use them.

They were impressively clean and I was sure that I had chosen the men's because of the neat row of urinals.

The toilet didn't have a bum gun, instead there was a control panel, written in English and there were picture icons to show you what each control did.

A warm water squirty thing to wash the required area. (It's position could be adjusted to suit your needs, a picture of a man's head and a woman's head, which had me wondering if I had chosen the right room).

A warm air air jet to dry.

Paper was also provided but who would use paper with all this automation?

It beat the cr_p out of squat and conventional toilets.

[NanLaew]

I have problems with my knee joints and squats cause me severe pain. I don't think it's very healthy to splatter pee all over the floor and legs either and I honestly don't understand how Thai females manage to not do so when using these toilets.

Oh but they do splatter all over the shop. Bring one of those black-light thingies to the bistro or club next night out. You can spot the 'dirty' girls a mile off.

PS. And don't touch the bar snacks either.

[NanLaew]

....

Anyway, hands up those who plonk their butt right down on there.

Yes... with both legs sticking out under the door.

[bonobo]

Oh, toilet Bliss, yesterday in Bangkok.

We had three hours to kill whilst a certain Embassy legalised some papers for us so:

We walk walk toward the BTS but got distracted and then diverted into the Terminal 21 building.

We both needed a visit to the loo and my wife went first.

On her return she said that the toilets were quite nice, in fact really very nice.

I therefore decided to use them.

They were impressively clean and I was sure that I had chosen the men's because of the neat row of urinals.

The toilet didn't have a bum gun, instead there was a control panel, written in English and there were picture icons to show you what each control did.

A warm water squirty thing to wash the required area. (It's position could be adjusted to suit your needs, a picture of a man's head and a woman's head, which had me wondering if I had chosen the right room).

A warm air air jet to dry.

Paper was also provided but who would use paper with all this automation?

It beat the cr_p out of squat and conventional toilets.

Each one has a theme, too, from San Francisco to Istanbul. It's like going on tour.

[bonobo]

My ex-girlfriend's mother was only in her 50's, but she kept falling down and breaking bones. She had several surgeries on her hand alone.

We made a trip to the village to see her in the hospital, but before we left, we asked what she needed. Her doctor said a western toilet. Off to HomePro we went, paid 2,500 baht, and loaded the thing up in the car.

We got the thing installed in about an hour, and while the woman still fell down as she was up and about, at least she didn't fall into the squat toilet as he had done before.

[FNQ]

These things are absolutely filthy and I will never sit on one of them.

I think you have possibly been told how to use them incorrectly.

(sorry, could'nt help myself )