Alec Caldwell Looks into Porta Potties

Maybe you should have to enter your Ontario College of Trades registration number to get the door open? The $135 a year fee would look like a bargain, no?

There are obvious bio hazards inside porta loos on many construction sites. Luckily, the government – at least in Ontario – may soon be knocking on the doors of such facilities, ready to clamp down on health violations.

With badly maintained portable toilets – including the lack of hand cleaning facilities, infectious diseases lie in wait. The worker can return to the job site ready to transfer bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic diseases. These transfers can also include fecal-to-oral diseases, when someone who’s already infected does not wash their hand properly with soap and water.

Transfer exchanges occur every time you need to pay a visit, especially if the washing or sanitizing equipment is missing or not working. Then food is handled, cigarettes or any other substance bring diseases towards our mouths and are ingested, sometimes with dire consequences.

A family member (construction worker) contracted hepatitis at home and was seriously hospitalized for 4 days, thinking he was about to die, he felt that bad. Contamination occurred through one participant at his son’s birthday party. The child failed to wash his hands after using the toilet and laid down a dangerous disease, that lay in wait for someone. Maybe it was in the birthday cake. Who knows where, yet it sent someone to the emergency department.

Touching any surfaces inside washroom facilities is dangerous and many of these facilities are disgusting to use, especially in hot weather. Many are unclean, under serviced and some constructors don’t pay enough attention to them, basically parking them in a corner, forgotten until they overflow or someone complains.

Laws on hygiene for these places have been around for years and right now the Ontario Ministry of Labour inspectors are targeting these facilities for compliance. View video