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The Big Necessity

The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters

Rose George

4 out of 10 have no access to latrines, so they defecate in plastic bags or at side of the road. The disease toll from this is horrendous. Kids affected most - diarrhea, almost always caused by fecally contaminated drinking water, kills 2.2 million p.a., more than AIDS, TB and malaria combined.

Biggest medical milestone of past 200 years is sanitation. Before London had sewers, half of all kids died early. When toilets, sewers and soap became common, child mortality dropped by 80%.

Treatment for superbug clostridium difficile resistant to many antibiotics, successfully (90%) treated with enema of a close relative's disease-free faeces, whose bacterial fauna somehow defeat the superbug.

Defecation the last taboo - we now discuss sex and death, but not toilet. Stephen Pinker lists a dozen classes of euphemism including taboo (shit) medical (stool) formal (faeces)but not one conversational.

In 60 years Japan has gone from simple squat toilets with a wiping stick, to water toilets with heated seats. Problem that paper is the least effective cleansing mech to clean the dirtiest part of the body.

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