Toilets and Hand Washing ...

I would like to ask the following questions of the Health Services Department.

I quote the following as found in the word document downloaded from your site http://www.gosnells.wa.gov.au from the following link http://www.gosnells.wa.gov.au/scripts/documentredirect.asp?BID=7826&NID=789
PART 2 - SANITATION

Division 1 - Sanitary Conveniences

Premises other than a Dwelling House

6.

(2) The occupier of premises other than a dwelling house shall ensure that -

(a) clean toilet paper is available at all times in each cubicle;

(b) a sanitary napkin disposal facility is provided and maintained in each toilet provided for the use of females; and

(c) each hand wash basin is provided with -

(i) an adequate supply of soap or other hand cleaning substances; and

(ii) hand drying facilities, situated adjacent to and visible from the hand basin.



My question is "Does the above apply to Public Toilets and Toilets in Schools within the City of Gosnells, and if not, what part of the CITY OF GOSNELLS HEALTH LOCAL-LAWS 1999 does cover these Public Toilets and/or School toilets?"

Peter Evans
8 McNamara Drive
Thornlie

REPLY GIVEN

Hi Peter,

Thankyou for your recent email regarding sanitary conveniences in premises other than dwellings.

Part 2, Division 1, Section 6 of City of Gosnells Health Local Laws 1999 refers to the requirements of sanitary conveniences in premises other than dwellings. This will include private school toilets and public toilets located on private land. However, state schools and public toilets located on public land are not covered by these local laws. The jurisdiction of these facilities lies with the state health department.

I hope this answers your question.
If you had an enquiry for a particular location, or i can assist you further please don't hesitate to contact me on the details below, i would be happy to discuss the matter with you.

Kind Regards,

Emma Smith
Environmental Health Officer
City of Gosnells
PO Box 662 Gosnells WA 6990
2120 Albany Highway Gosnells WA 6110
Ph: 08 9391 3274 Fax: 08 9398 2922
Email: esmith@gosnells.wa.gov.au


AND

The toilets located at Harmony Fields and Pioneer Park would be the City's responsibility. The Gosnells Train Station would fall under the jurisdiction of the Public Transport Authority.
Is there a problem with these facilities?

Kind Regards,

Emma Smith


AND

Thank you for contacting WA Health. We welcome your opinions and comments.

Your email has been sent to a member of our staff who will review it and take action as needed. If you have requested a response to your email please be aware that this may take a little time. Thanks for your patience.

Please print a copy of this page for your records.

Name: Peter Evans
Email: webyter@gmail.com
Subject: Public School Toilets
Message: Are there any requirements for sanitation in Public School Toilets, ie should they provide soap, toilet paper and adequate drying facilities or are they allowed to not provide anything in these Toilets, is there any legislation covering these facilities as they appear to be outside the Local Government control and most schools tend to cut costs and not supply soap or adequate drying materials due to wastage by students, given that we as parents teach our children to wash their hands immediately after using the toilet, seems that public schools don't provide the facilities to allow the students to do this, how is it that this situation can be allowed to exist, by example I submit that Thornlie Senior High School does not even have soap dispensers fitted, and Thornlie Primary School has a policy that the students use antiseptic cream when they return to their classroom, which does not help when the children are on a break as they have to wait to get back to class to clean their hands, given the senerio that a child goes to lunch, the fist thing they do is use the toilet, they cant clean their hands other than with cold water, then they eat their lunch, and then when their classroom finally reopens they can, if they remember wash their hands (this is the case in Thornlie Primary) and as mentioned in Thornlie High they simply do not provide anything, and I would suggest that this is the case with many other Public schools as they are not specifically supplied with a budget to cater for this expense, does the Health Department have any policy covering Public Schools or does the Department simply not care!



AND

I have tried repeatedly to contact the Education Department to find out what their policy is on toilets within Public Schools

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

Jeremy.Martin@det.wa.edu.au




Final-Recipient: rfc822;Jeremy.Martin@det.wa.edu.au
Action: failed
Status: 5.2.2
X-Display-Name: MARTIN Jeremy [School Innovation and Reform]



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: webyter
To: Jeremy.Martin@det.wa.edu.au
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 07:14:56 +0800
Subject: Public School Toilets
Is there a policy that relates to toilets within schools in relation to the sanitation requirements ie supply of soap and adequate drying facilities, do schools receive a budget allowance to cater for these items

Peter Evans
0433 307 645

AND

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