Are You Prepared for "The Big One"? Don't Wait for the Next Pandemic - Act Now.

Discover surprising truths about hygiene, design, and disease prevention — stories that change how you see everyday life.

From cars to classrooms, we uncover how hidden risks shape our communities — and how simple habits protect us all.

Whether you’re a nurse on break, a parent juggling errands, or someone who wants cleaner public spaces—thank you for being here.

Exhausting Restroom Air: A Survival Infrastructure Imperative

The Problem

Public restrooms are confined spaces where toilet flushing aerosolizes pathogens (E. coli, S. aureus, norovirus) into the air. Without proper ventilation, these bioaerosols linger, raising infection risks for every visitor.

You’ve seen it before — a darkened room, a single beam of sunlight, and 'dust motes' swirling like dancers. They drift, they linger, they never seem to settle. Household dust often contains fibers, skin cells, pollen, mold spores, and tiny fragments of soil or pollutants.

A door opening, people moving, a hand air-dryer blowing invisible dust back into your breath. The problem is that a norovirus is using the dust as a taxi. A simple fact, dust clears when fresh air moves. Pathogens clear only when restrooms exhaust their full air volume. Public restrooms are armor, essential survival infrastructure.

What the Act Requires

1. Safer Air Systems Every public restroom must exhaust its full air volume every 5 minutes—vented directly outside, never recirculated into the building’s HVAC system. This prevents the spread of airborne pathogens and improves indoor safety.

2. A National Restroom Registry. Each fixed-location public restroom will be assigned a unique ID and entered into a federal database. This enables:

• Standardized monitoring and compliance 

• Faster response to sanitation failures

• Stronger accountability across public facilities

Takeaways

• The air inside restrooms is not harmless. Flushing sends pathogens airborne, spreading them throughout the building.

• Ventilation systems can reduce pathogen concentrations by factors of 2–10, making them a survival infrastructure.

Seven Citations of evidence for exhausting contaminated air and replacing it with fresh, clean air.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – Ventilation in Buildings. CDC guidance explains how proper ventilation reduces the spread of airborne virus particles indoors, lowering the risk of transmission in confined spaces.

2. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – Indoor Air and COVID-19. EPA emphasizes exhausting restroom air outdoors and increasing the number of air changes per hour to dilute pathogens.

3. California Department of Public Health (CDPH) – Ventilation, Filtration, and Air Quality Guidance recommends at least 5 air changes per hour in indoor spaces to reduce respiratory infection risk.

4. Nature Scientific Reports – Exploring Toilet Plume Bioaerosol Exposure Dynamics Demonstrates how flushing generates bioaerosols that remain airborne, with mechanical ventilation significantly reducing pathogen concentrations.

5. Society for Risk Analysis – Ventilation Fans Reduce Bacteria After Toilet Flushing study shows exhaust fans can reduce bioaerosol risks by up to 10 times after flushing.

6. News-Medical – Active Ventilation Can Reduce Bioaerosol Risks in Public Restrooms Confirms flushing generates bioaerosols (E. coli, S. aureus) exceeding CDC safety levels, but ventilation dramatically lowers exposure.

7. StudyFinds – Public Restrooms Revealing Hidden Health Hazards Research shows squat toilets release 2.6 times more bacteria into the air than bidet toilets, with ventilation reducing airborne bacteria by up to 2.2 times. 

Paper Towels vs. Air-Dryers

Dry Safe, Not Dirty.

Why It Matters

• Airborne spread: Dryers project particles at face‑level height, increasing exposure risk for children and adults.

• Hands stay contaminated: Jet dryers blow microbes back onto freshly washed hands, undoing hygiene.

• Toilet plumes amplified: Toilets aerosolize pathogens into the air — dryers recirculate and amplify them.

• Paper towels are safer: They physically remove bacteria through friction and don’t aerosolize pathogens.

Hygiene Comparison

What the Studies Show revealed about Air-Dryers vs. Paper Towels

• Cleveland Clinic (2023): Jet dryers spread — rather than remove — germs. Users had more viruses on their hands and aprons compared to paper towels.

• Harvard Health (2018): Petri dishes exposed to dryers grew 254 bacterial colonies in 30 seconds; dryers pulled in contaminated air from the restroom.

• Times of India (2025): Jet dryers propel contaminated particles onto hands, clothes, and surfaces. Even HEPA‑filtered dryers still release bacteria.

• Aerosol Science & Technology (2025): Chamber tests showed Dyson Airblade released 528–1000 CFU per use; Excel Xlerator ~140 CFU. Both contaminated surrounding air and surfaces.

Public restrooms must protect us — not infect us.

“If San Diego can do it,
Every city can.”

• San Diego: ~26 restrooms per 100k residents (~1 per 3,900 people)
• Philadelphia and Dallas: Over 20,000 people per restroom
• New York City: ~8.4 restrooms per 100k (~1 per 11,900 people)
• Large U.S. cities (avg): ~10 restrooms per 100k (~1 per 10,000 people)

In most major cities, each public restroom serves tens of thousands — a ratio that turns basic hygiene into a public health hazard and dignity into a daily gamble.

Baseline Standard (Politically Achievable Now)

San Diego, CA proves what’s possible: one public restroom for every 3,900 residents. That’s the baseline every city can and should meet today. A ratio of 1:4,000 is doable— it’s achievable, and it’s urgent.

Gold Standard (Scientifically Necessary, but Politically Impossible)

But science tells us survival requires more. Pandemic preparedness demands one restroom for every 1,000–2,000 people. That’s the gold standard. 

Public Restrooms Become Frontline Defenses. Without them, handwashing breaks down, and contagion accelerates because a single restroom serving thousands becomes a chokepoint for infection. Public Restrooms are not luxuries. They are a survival infrastructure.

“Armor isn’t optional—it’s survival.” Public restrooms are frontline defenses in pandemics; without them, handwashing collapses and contagion accelerates. Source: UN Water 

“Hope in hygiene rules them all.” Preparedness depends on equitable access to clean facilities; dignity and survival are inseparable. Source: CDC 

“San Diego shows us the baseline.” One restroom for every 3,900 residents proves achievable standards exist today. Source: City Data 

“Gold is the goal, science says so.” Pandemic preparedness demands one restroom for every 1,000–2,000 people. That’s the scientifically necessary ratio. Source: NIH 

“Public restrooms are armor, not luxuries.” They are survival infrastructure—without them, communities fall. Source: WHO 

“This is not plumbing. This is public health.” Every stall, faucet, and lock is a shield against disease and indignity. Source: OSHA

Each restroom protects against disease, stigma, and unsafe alternatives. Hygiene infrastructure is as vital as helmets, seatbelts, or vaccines, as well as hospitals, roads, and bridges. These are survival infrastructure. Public Restrooms are Armor!"
Bruce Bonnett

We declare: Public Restrooms Are Armor.

Not porcelain, not plumbing, not an afterthought. They are shields forged for everyday life. Shields against disease, against indignity, against the silence that tells us to “hold it” instead of demanding better.

Every stall is a fortress of resilience. Every faucet is a frontline tool. Every lock, every vent, every flush — armor pieces that protect families, workers, students, and strangers alike.

Neglect is exposure. Broken doors, empty dispensers, and locked facilities strip away our defenses. They leave us vulnerable to pathogens, stigma, and unsafe alternatives. When restrooms fail, communities fall.

We refuse to treat public restrooms as taboo. We name them, we claim them, we demand them. Because dignity is not optional. Hygiene is not a luxury. Access is not charity.

We call on citizens, not just policymakers, to stand with us. To see restrooms not as cursed spaces, but as civic armor — infrastructure as vital as roads, bridges, and hospitals. This is not plumbing. This is public health.      

Sign the Public Restroom Renewal Act Petition Today!

Ethos Within the Name
Bruce Bonnett

     The ethos of a nation isn’t carved in stone. It flickers. It moves. It’s the dancer within the flame— grace inside urgency, rhythm inside resistance.

It lives in the places we overlook. In the stall with no lock. In the faucet that won’t flow. In the silence of someone holding it in because the restroom isn’t safe.

This isn’t about plumbing. It’s about people. It’s about the choreography of care— how we move together, how we build together, how we prepare before the panic when "The Big One" awakes and seeks out our village.

Public restrooms are public truth. They reflect our ethos: Do we protect the vulnerable? Do we honor the everyday? Do we fund dignity, or flush it away?

The dancer within the flame doesn’t ask for luxury. She asks for light. For space. For respect.

And when we answer—with standards, with jobs, with justice—we don’t just build restrooms. We build renewal.