Today Is World Toilet Day, Yet What Do You Like Doing On The Lav?

It is the place where we find calm and solitude in our busy lives - it is the place we run to when having a bad day at work, and the one place were we know we won't be disturbed, but what else do we do on the lav, apart from the obvious?

We do our most thinking, we read, we even don't mind sending a text message or even have a chat on the phone in the UK, according to a new survey. The habits of the lavatory have certainly changed over the years and in a world where we are surrounded by increasing pressures and stress, it's no wonder we go to the loo when we want some time to be calm... According to the study in the UK, around a staggering, 14 million people get in their daily intake of the day's newspapers, make decisions, think and catch up on a couple of chapters of their favourite book. Yet the study also showed that the embarrassment of the lav has since gone by the wayside as more and more of us don't mind having a chat on the phone, while we're sitting on the throne. The results of the study showed that around 8 million of Brits will send at least five texts whilst on the bog and even have a conversation with family or close friends - I guess the era of phoning your boss or someone at work hasn't quite dawned on us just yet. The 2,000 Brits took part in the study especially commissioned for World Toilet Day, which may sound like they have run out of ideas to name November the 19th after, but the serious concerns of the day is to highlight increasingly poor sanitary habits which many of us have. Another strange concept was the idea of eating whilst on the loo - as the mind tends to wonder while the body is engaged in another activity, the stomach takes over and thinks about grub. Yet sex also plays a part, as women stay focused on the events of the day, men will look around for something to distract them - it is then no wonder that it is a man who will take some reading material into the gents with them... Policy adviser for water and sanitation for the study's author's Tearfund, Mari Williams, said of the results,

"It's scandalous that in the 21st Century, more than 2.5 billion people living in the developing world do not have a clean, safe place to go to the toilet, and almost 900 million people do not have access to clean water - something we take for granted in the UK."

Also on a more serious note, Mike Foster, who is the water and sanitation minister at the Department for International Development (DFID), who says these figures only reinforced the need to give people basic help to access to sanitation around the world - in this day and age - there should be no excuse not to have access to fresh water, and a clean toilet. In relation to this, in October this year, the DFID announced an welcomed bid to provide build enough toilets for the 50 million people in poorer countries who need decent sanitation. This project hopes to provide this over the next five years. In the meantime, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) continues to push the message of the importance of washing hands after visiting the loo. The group claims that around one in six don't wash their hands at all and over half of all UK adults don't dry their hands. Speaking on behalf of the organisation, Richard Parish told the BBC,

"We know hand washing and drying could prevent up to half of all acute respiratory infections in this country and this, in turn, could save up to £80m on annual GP consultations. Hand washing is even more effective at preventing acute gastro-intestinal infections."

So on this, world toilet day, and while we're on the subject, what are your habits, and what do you like to do to pass the time, while you pass...?