Pa. woman using purple toilets to fight cancer

EASTON, Pa. (AP) — A northeastern Pennsylvania woman is using purple toilets to raise money to fight cancer.

The Express-Times reports (http://bit.ly/15elgmY ) Rebecca Szabo-Silfies and her two young sons have been leaving the commodes on lawns around Upper Nazareth Township as part of the "Flush Out Cancer" effort. She chairs Saturday's American Cancer Society Relay for Life event at Nazareth Area High School.

She stakes out a home, leaves a toilet and then waits for the homeowner to find it. The person can then pay $10 to have it taken away, $20 to send it to a friend or $30 to send it to a friend and guarantee it never comes back.

The two purple toilets have made 18 stops so far, raising $400. Szabo-Silfies says she found the idea on the Internet.

___

Information from: The (Easton, Pa.) Express-Times, http://www.lehighvalleylive.com

View the original article here

More people have access to cell phones than toilets

A new United Nations report says that more people have access to more mobile toilets (original, AP images) a new United Nations study found that more people in the world have access to a mobile phone than a working Cabinet.

The study claim numbers of the estimated 7 billion world of 6 billion people have access to mobile phones. However, only 4.5 billion lack access to sanitation.

At a news conference announcing the report, UN Secretary-General Jan Eliasson has announced that the organization is launching a bid to halve the number of those who do not have access by the end of 2015.

"Let's face it, this is a problem that people don't like to talk about. But goes to the heart of ensuring good health, a clean environment and fundamental human dignity for billions of people, "Eliasson said at the press conference.

In August 2012, the Bill Gates Foundation began its effort to "reinvent the toilet" as a way to help curb the number of people worldwide without access to sanitary waste disposal.

Interestingly, the report states that India alone is responsible for 60 percent of the world's population that doesn't use a WC, 626 million individuals estimated. Yet, at the same time, there are an estimated 1 billion handsets in India.

On the contrary, in the most highly populated country in the world, China, only 14 million people lack access to sanitation. However, there are also less mobile phones in China, 986 million, according to the Daily Mail.

Driving the point home, more than 750,000 people die each year from diarrhoea and one of its primary causes is by unsanitary conditions created in the community without access to toilets.

And there are other benefits options installation of sanitation most modern that doesn't immediately come to mind.

"This can also improve the security of women and girls, who are often targeted when they are alone," said Martin Mogwanja, Deputy Executive Director of the children's Fund of the United Nations. And providing secure and private toilets can also help the girls to remain in school, we know that can increase their future earnings and help break the cycle of poverty.

View the original article here