# Toilet seats. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 1999, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810 "1999-07-03T01:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/1 "1999-07-03T01:35:00Z")
Anybody happen to know the purpose of the slot in the front of public toilet seats? Peace, mangeorge * * * Work like you don’t need the money… Love like you’ve never been hurt… Dance like nobody’s watching! …Unknown ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/2 "1999-07-03T01:42:00Z")
I couldn’t find this in the archives, but it is answered in _The Straight Dope Tell All_, page 6. Essentially, it’s to keep men from urinating on them. The question then becomes, why aren’t home seats the same? I guess people are just more careful at home. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/3 "1999-07-03T01:42:00Z")
Probably so men can leave the seat down with less of a chance of it getting wet. * * * “Age is mind over matter; if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” -Leroy “Satchel” Paige ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/4 "1999-07-03T02:45:00Z")
So’s when ya’ goes to pray to Ralph ya’ doesn’t bang your head raising the lid? (No personal knowledge however, I’m a sink puker myself.) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/5 "1999-07-03T23:39:00Z")
Found Cecil’s answer online. [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a900302.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a900302.html) Alphagene ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 1999, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/6 "1999-07-04T00:59:00Z")
Thanks. If Cecil say’s it, it must be so. Although I have trouble believing that many men are that accurate (to hit the slot) with their dribbling. Myself, I prefer to use the urinal Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 1999, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/7 "1999-07-04T11:09:00Z")
A restaurant I visited in Holland had an interesting solution. There was a cleaning device mounted on the back of the toilet (the part you’d lean against if you sat down). And after the toilet was flushed, the toilet seat would actually revolve, sending it through this device to be wiped with some sort of disinfectant. It was bizarre, but it’s one solution! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 1999, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/8 "1999-07-04T11:37:00Z")
Mangeorge: It’s not just men that pee through the slot, also 2-5 year old boys that can’t reach the urinal. And they don’t aim too good. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 1999, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/9 "1999-07-04T20:41:00Z")
My brother-in-law works for OSHA. There was actually a federal safety regulation that mandated the U-shaped seats in restaurants & workplaces. It was common knowledge that the sole purpose for that standard was so that the OSHA inspectors wouldn’t be hurt while getting a drink… That standard went by the wayside when the kinder, gentler OSHA came to be. * * * Sue from El Paso [members.aol.com/majormd/index.html](http://members.aol.com/majormd/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 1999, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/10 "1999-07-05T07:04:00Z")
Now _how_ did you find that Alphagene? I went to the archives and searched for “toilet”. What did I do wrong? Luckily, I have all the books, so I don’t have to rely on flaky search engines. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 1999, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/11 "1999-07-05T18:57:00Z")
Well, since you asked, Greg: Before I even started cavorting about the Board here, I had a marathon session of reading all of Cecil’s columns online. I remembered reading the one about the toilet, but like you said a search of “toilet” gave nothing. Since the search only includes “Recent” “Classics” and “Mailbag”, I figured that I must have read it under the columns from the books. You confirmed that it was from a book, but _The Straight Dope Tells All_ was not listed online so I browsed “Miscellaneous”. Ta-da. Fascinating story, I know. Alphagene ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 1999, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/12 "1999-07-05T21:59:00Z")
[[Since the search only includes “Recent” “Classics” and “Mailbag”]] Your search of Mailbag should have also yielded my article on diseases one could possibly catch from one. Jill ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 1999, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/13 "1999-07-05T22:11:00Z")
True. I remember reading that one too. In fact, I showed it to my boss the herpes virologist. So I mis-spoke. Or mis-typed. I meant to say a “toilet” search didn’t yield the article in question, rather than “a search of “toilet” gave nothing.” Alphagene ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 1999, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-seats/1810/14 "1999-07-06T00:04:00Z")
Alphagene, you can search at [www.ask.com](http://www.ask.com) for ‘who makes toilet seats?’ & youll get a lot of answers to all sorts of toilet seat questions. The one from the Straight Dope which answers this question is also there: Why are residential toilet seats always round, and public toilet seats always “U” shaped? Who started this practice? --R.G., Jacksonville, Florida At any rate, if men are such splashers, why don’t they put them on our regular, non-public toilets?