{"id":257269,"date":"2016-10-11T17:53:28","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T17:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=257269"},"modified":"2016-10-11T17:53:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T17:53:28","slug":"us-mens-toilets-to-get-baby-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=257269","title":{"rendered":"US men’s toilets to get baby facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Male toilets in public buildings in the US must now have baby changing facilities, according to a new law signed by President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

Both male and female bathrooms should have a “physically safe, sanitary and appropriate” place to change a nappy.<\/p>\n

Known as the Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation (BABIES) Act, it was first raised back in April by Congressman David N Cicilline.<\/p>\n

“Federal buildings are paid for by taxpayers,” he says.<\/p>\n

\"Barack<\/div>\n

“It’s important to ensure that they are as open, as accessible, and as family-friendly as possible.”<\/p>\n

The act makes public places “more accommodating for working moms and dads” across the US.<\/p>\n

There is no specific legislation in the UK regarding baby change facilities, Raymond Martin, director at the British Toilet Association (BTA) says.<\/p>\n

The organisation was set up almost 20 years ago to campaign for better public toilets across the country.<\/p>\n

Back then, he estimates, no more than one in ten male toilets had a proper place to change a nappy. Now it’s closer to two-thirds.<\/p>\n

\"Sign<\/div>\n

“Putting baby change into male facilities was overlooked,” he tells Newsbeat.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been working with lots of organisations and major manufacturers, who come to us for advice and guidance.”<\/p>\n

But he is critical of the government, saying they don’t want to “take responsibility” for making sure the UK has adequate facilities.<\/p>\n

And one of the biggest worries, Mr Martin says, is the amount of public toilets being closed in recent years.<\/p>\n

At least 1,782 facilities have closed across the UK in the last decade, a BBC Freedom of Information request found earlier this year.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Male toilets in public buildings in the US must now have baby changing facilities, according to a new law signed by President Barack Obama. Both male and female bathrooms should have a “physically safe, sanitary and appropriate” place to change a nappy. Known as the Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation (BABIES) Act, it was first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":257273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[12541,3,594],"class_list":["post-257269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-odd","tag-baby-toilets","tag-ghana-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=257269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/257273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=257269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=257269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=257269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}