Page 41 - Green Builder May-June 2020 Issue

3. STRIP DOWN THE SHOWER manually kill many forms of invisible patho- MORE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT:
Get rid of that decorative outer layer of gens. Look for one that produces light in the ■ Initial Hygiene: “How can you catch
shower curtain. Stick with washable vinyl UVC spectrum. It’s likely that soon, room- diseases through the air?“
or plastic. In the future, try to replace the scale UVC lighting will be available that can LarsonElectronics: “How does UV light
■
enclosure with smooth glass doors. Wash sterilize an entire bathroom. affect the coronavirus?”
the entire shower space down with disin- Do your best to make your bathroom
■ Nature: “Far-UVC light: A new tool to
fectant frequently. Avoid bathing in the unfriendly to coronavirus, and the same pro- control the spread of airborne-mediated
tub—don’t spend longer in the bathroom tocol will help you avoid the flu and other microbial diseases”
than you need to. less dangerous infections in coming years.
Good luck. GB
4. RUN THE BATH FAN CONSTANTLY
Bath fans are not just for odors. They
remove particulates too, including airborne It’s a wash. A toilet paper
viruses and bacteria. Never shut it off when shortage and public curiosity has
you have sickness in the house. If you don’t finally made bidets cool with
have a ceiling vent fan installed, open a Americans.
window and put a fan in the window fac-
ing outdoors, and run it constantly. Get a
bathroom fan installed as soon as you feel
better. New ones such as the WhisperGreen
Select from Panasonic are quiet and energy
efficient.

5. CLOSE THE TOILET AFTER EVERY USE CREDIT: TED & DANI PERCIVAL/FLICKR
If you or your kids have a hard time
remembering this, you can make it happen
automatically. There are many models of
automatic seat closers available, and some Bidet similar brands has Americans becoming more open-
are completely hands-free. For example, minded to using what is basically a drinking fountain
the iTouchless sensor toilet seat, available to wash up instead of wiping up. Bidet manufactur-
for about $150 as an add-on, includes sen- Brilliance ers say toilet paper use can drop by up to 80 percent
sors that make it self-opening as well as per household. If toilet paper use dropped to zero,
self-closing. Toilet paper takes a back seat roughly 15 million trees would still be around to clean

6. BIDETS: GO PAPERLESS to this increasingly popular the air, instead of being turned into pulp each year.
Bidets can also help conserve water, according
Aside from the cost and anxiety of running bathroom tool. to Scientific American. Creating one roll of toilet
out of toilet paper, a roll of toilet paper left paper requires 37 gallons of water. Some bidets,
out in the open in the bathroom becomes OILET PAPER HOARDING and public curios- meanwhile, use only one-eighth of a gallon a flush.
a settling ground for viral particles. Avoid ity has helped Americans discover what Toilet paper’s carbon footprint also includes hun-
TP entirely by installing a bidet or low-cost the rest of the world already knew: bidets dreds of thousands of tons of chlorine needed to
bidet seat that uses water instead of paper T are pretty cool thing. They also save thou- make toilet paper white, massive energy required
to clean your bottom. If you want to spend sands of trees annually that might otherwise be during the manufacturing process, tons of single-
a little more, you can get a self-sanitizing ground into the virgin white paper rolls we all love. use plastic for packaging, and tens of thousands
version such as the C3-155 unit from Kohler, A mass TP shortage caused by fears of extend- of gallons of fuel for shipping.
and you will never have to stand in line ed shelter-in-place rules has caused bidet sales But much of the world is also aware of the
for toilet paper again (see sidebar, “Bidet to skyrocket since March. Manufacturer Tushy benefits. Bidets are common and, in some cases,
Brilliance”). reports seeing its orders hit $1 million a day by required in nations such as Italy, Portugal, Japan,
March 31—more than 10 times normal. Another Argentina and Venezuela, according to The Atlantic.
7. LIGHT IT UP manufacturer, Brondell, says it sold a bidet on Ama- In many places, flushing toilet paper down the drain
Daylight may kill some forms of bacteria, zon every two minutes, or about 1,000 units per is illegal due to its impact on plumbing. And, users
mold and viruses, although its impact on day, from mid-March to mid-April. And, attachment will say you simply feel cleaner when you’re done.
coronavirus is not well documented. Let maker Hygiene for Health says its sales doubled You may have to wait a bit, though—bidet makers
the sun shine in. You can also buy Germ- during that same period. report being sold out of their products, with unde-
AwayUV’s UVC sanitizing and disinfect- The lack of Charmin, Cottonelle, Angel Soft and termined restock dates. GB
ing handheld wand or a similar device to

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