Standard Appraisal of Toilets and Assessment of Coliform Bacteria in the Public Toilets of Ubon Ratchathani University

Abstract

The present paper is a standard appraisal study of public toilets based on the National Standard of Public Toilets (HAS) to evaluate 30 male-female toilets in 15 areas at Ubon Ratchathani University. Coliform bacteria was tested by using bacteria test kit (SI2) with 165 samples including sink taps, spray lines, door knobs or door locks, toilet bowl covers, toilet flush buttons and urinal flush buttons. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage. The results indicated that all toilets didn’t meet the standard of HAS. While classify by section found that the Health section, the Accessibility section and the Safety section did  not meet the standard at 100.0%, 53.3% and 40.0% respectively. According to bacteria contamination testing results,  it was found that female toilets had bacteria contamination higher than male toilets. The highest bacteria contamination in female toilets (86.7%) was at toilet bowl cover and toilet flush button   and 60.5 of spray lines and sink taps had the bacteria contamination. For the male toilets, it was found 86.7% of  the toilet bowl covers, 73.3% of the spray lines and 46.7% of the toilet flush buttons were contaminated with bacteria. Therefore the caregivers should regularly focus on cleaning points especially toilet bowl covers,  toilet flush buttons, spray lines and sink taps. It is also recommended that the university should provide enough facilities in the toilets to reduce the contamination of pathogens and for the hygiene of all users.