Event promoters are asked to relocate portable toilets – Innocent people contaminated and injured

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UK Event Safety are appealing to event promoters to reconsider the manner in which portable toilets are located at events after being involved in a number of instances of people deliberately tipping the toilets over.

Although this is certainly not a new thing, it is extremely dangerous and the act leads to serious contamination of the person left inside to suffer. Along with all of the obvious substances that are present, there are a number of very aggressive chemicals present which both clean the toilet and also breakdown the waste.

Glenn Ramsden from UK Event Safety said; “We are asking event promoters and planners to position the toilets back to back to lessen the risk of them being tipped over.”

Although our recommendation for positioning the toilets will not stop them being tipped over, it will certainly reduce the risk significantly and make it more difficult to do. One of the chemicals used in the portable units has properties that can cause burns and are very toxic by inhalation, ingestion and through the skin. Medical teams that encounter casualties involved in such acts always take the people to a local A&E where they can often spend up to 24 hours in hospital under observation.

In one recent instance, a toilet was tipped over on to the door and the innocent person sustained cuts as a result, clearly this increased her chances on contamination affecting her blood. During another similar incident, a teenager was said to have ingested some of the contents whilst being freed from the toilet.

There have been cases of the perpetrators being charged with assault after being involved in such mindless acts and UK Event Safety would like to appeal to police forces nationally to enforce this as much as possible.

The act is also a massive drain on resources; those involved are event medics, NHS services, event security teams, police forces, toilet contractors (additional unnecessary decontamination work) and often a team will need to be brought in to decontaminate the ground in the area.

We appeal to those who think that this type of act is funny to think again, put yourself in the situation of those innocent people and also the shoes of those having to deal with the aftermath.

Tags: Event Magazine, Event Risk Assesment, event saftey, event toilets, UK Event Saftey

Category: Event Industry News