POTTY PARITY - MEDIA AND LEGISLATIVE STAFF SUPPORT

"America's advocate for the availability of clean, safe, well designed public restrooms"

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POTTY PARITY
Support resources for media and legislative staff researchers

OVERVIEW

'Potty Parity' refers to advocacy efforts and actual legislation that addresses the longer lines for women often seen at public restrooms.

Women's queues are often seen at venues where the toilet fixture were allocated according to out-of-date building codes. These codes mandate a minimum number of toilet fixtures for various occupancies, which are based on complex formulas and tables.

The code used in older buildings typically mandate an equal number of toilet fixtures for women and men rather then the 'necessary' number of fixtures for both sexes. Older code also does not address surge periods in toilet usage at large venues; for example during the the 7th inning stretch at baseball game. Even the current code used by many States does not address the problem women face at small venues with a single women's toilet. One mom, walking in with her small children can have the toilet locked for 5 - 10 minutes which often causes a queue waiting for the door to open. Potty parity legislation, typically, has tried to address these problems by mandating twice as many toilets for women as for men.

PROBLEMS WITH GENDER PARITY LEGISLATION.

A legislated female:male 'ratio, typically 2 to 1, has serious deficiencies. First, it conflicts with State-mandated building codes The latest building codes address 'toilet need' with direct counts rather than ratios. Worse, for certain venues the latest code mandates ratios higher than 2 to 1 leading to the ironic situation of potty parity legislation reducing the required toilet fixtures for women. Adding 'no less than' language can result in a significant excess of fixtures reserved for female use. This might occur, for example, in an all-male school dormitory or a prison block.

A second problem is that rather then adding additional toilets, often male restrooms are converted to female use. Rather then removing queuing for everyone, it results in a shift to longer lines for men.

A front page story in the April 12, 2009 New York Times entitled "New Ballpark Statistic: Stadium’s Toilet Ratio" provides interesting examples of proper building code implementation and it also discusses distortions caused by 'ratio' legislation.
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RECOMMENDATIONS

The American Restroom Associations recommends 'potty parity' legislation that has a three-fold goal.

First, ensure that the required 'minimum number of toilet fixtures' in the latest building code provide the necessary number of toilet facilities for everyone. The two major sources of 'toilet provisioning code', are the International Plumbing Code and the Uniform Plumbing Code. For most venues, the toilet minimums provided in the 2009 version of these codes will eliminate queuing for either sex. Legislation may be required to address building code weakness for a few remaining critical popular public venues. For example, the IPC requires 1 toilet for women in a restaurant that could accommodate up to a 150 people (the UPC requires 3). In a store designed to accommodate 1000 customers and employee's, the IPC still mandates only 1 female toilet. (the UPC requires between 4 to 8).

Second, bring older buildings up to the 'minimum number of toilet fixture' required in the latest code.

A third objective of this legislation should be to increase the use of unisex toilets where feasible. Unisex facilities provide intrinsic potty parity. Small restaurant, for example, often have 1 men's and 1 women's toilet. Making them both unisex would reduce the chance of waiting for everyone.

ARA POTTY PARITY CODE DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT MATERIAL

ARA technical support for changes proposed to correct potty parity IPC deficiencies via the ICC 2010 Code Development Cycle.

Potential Corrections (F) = Female (M) = Male

Current IPC 2009 is A-2 Bar   1 per 40
Change A-2 Bar  (F) 1/25 first 25 then 1 per 75      U=200
Change A-2 Bar  (M) 1/25 first 25 then 1 per 90     U=200+150

Current IPC 2009 is A-2 Restaurant 1 per 75
Change A-2 Restaurant (F) 1/25 first 25 then 1 per 80
Change A-2 Restaurant (M) 1/25 first 25 then 1 per 100

Current IPC 2009 'B' Business is 1 per 25 first 50 then 1 per 50
Change B (F) 1 per 25 first 50 then 1 per 50 U=200
Change B (M) 1 per 25 first 50 then 1 per 100 U=500+300

Current 2009 'M' Mercantile is 1 per 500
Change M (F) 1 per 25 first 50 then 1 per 400 U=200
Change M (M) 1 per 25 first 50 then 1 per 600 U=200+150

There are various foot-notes and rules that are included with the minimum number of toilet fixtures tables. Below are ARA developed tables that show actual numbers after the caveats are applied.

NOTE: THE ARA RECOMMENDATIONS BELOW WERE FOR 2006 CODE CYCLE, NOT 2009

MINIMUM NUMBER OF TOILET FIXTURE COMPARISON CHART

Cell background colors indicates

RED Minimums appear inadequate
YELLOW - Questionable minimums

BLUE Minimums appear excessive
GREEN Proposed change

For an occupancy between	1-15	16-35	36-55	56-80	81-110	111-150	151-300
Total WC Minimums	1	2	3	4	5	6	12

UNIFORM PLUMBING CODE 2006 RESTAURANT PUBS & LOUNGES

For an occupancy between	1-14	15-100	101-300	301-500	501-700	701-900
Total WC Minimums	1	4	6	8	10	12

IPC 2006 A-2 RESTAURANT

For an occupancy between	1-15	16-150	151-300
Total WC Minimum	1	2	4

IPC 2006 A-2 PUBS & LOUNGES

For an occupancy between	1-15	16-80	81-160	161-240	241-320	-400	-480	-560	-640
Total WC Minimum	1	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16

Note1: Federal Law 29 CFR 1910.141 is based on research reported by the U.S. National Institute of Health. The law has been successfully defended against numerous challenges in both State and Federal Courts.

Per the above, ARA recommends the following changes to the 2006 IPC
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ARA - MINIMUM IPC WC RECOMMENDATION CHART

CHANGE TO 2006 IPC A-2 (RESTAURANT & BAR COMBINED)

For an occupancy between	1-15	16-50	51-100	101-150	151-300
Total WC Minimums	1	1M:1F	2M:2F	2M:3F	3M:4F

FALL BACK #1 2006 IPC A-2 RESTAURANT ONLY

For an occupancy between	1-15	16-60	61-150	151-300
Total WC Minimums	1	1M:1F	2M:2F	2M:4F

FALL BACK #2 2006 IPC A-2 RESTAURANT ONLY

For an occupancy between	1-15	16-60	61-150	151-300
Total WC Minimums	1	1M:1F	2M:2F	2M:3F

IPC 2006 USE GROUP M is significantly significantly at variance with the UPC and appears to be under provisioned at higher occupancies.

UNIFORM PLUMBING CODE 2006 RETAIL & WHOLESALE (EQUIV IPC USE GROUP M) Note14 does not apply

For an occupancy between	N	1-50	51-200	201-400	401-600	601-800
Total WC Minimums	1	1M:1F	2M:2F	4M:4F M=2w+2u	6M:6F M=3w+3u	14 (6M:8F)

IPC 2003 USE GROUP M

For an occupancy between	1-50	51- 1000
Total WC Minimum	1	2

"AT LEAST" CHANGE RECOMMENDATION FOR IPC 2003 USE GROUP M

For an occupancy between	1-50	51-100
Total WC Minimum	1	2M:2F

Note: Going from 2 (1 locked for each gender) to 4 (2 WC for each gender) increases the capacity more then 2 fold.
Note: The IPC allows urinals to be substituted for 50% the WC's

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