How Do Bidets Work?

The most popular modern bidet was invented in the U.S., so why hasn't this technology caught on here? Learn the history of the bidet in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://home.howstuffworks.com/bidet.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. Americans as a culture
are fairly interested in hygiene, or the country that popularized
hand sanitizer, for example, but parts of Europe and Asia
have been on the bidet bandwagon for a long time,
whereas Americans are apparently fine with cleaning their bottoms less

(00:25):
well than other cultures. But why It might have to
do with the biday's long and illustrious history, popular in
fancy European households since the sixteen hundreds. The original biday
was a little chair or stool with a tub of
water built into the seat. The user, after doing all
of their chamber pop business, straddled this device and washed

(00:48):
themselves off. The word biday means pony in French, which
goes a long way in helping the user understand how
to use it. Over the centuries, bidays became popular in
at rooms all over the world. Eventually they became a
plumbed fixture in the bathroom, sitting right next to the toilet,
but they never took off in the US. It's possible

(01:10):
that during and after World War Two, American soldiers visiting
brothels in Europe and Japan noticed bi days were common
in these establishments and began to associate the days with
sex work. It's possible they thought bidays were used as
a douching method, which was thought at the time to
be a legit contraceptive practice. It's not so. Even though

(01:31):
the style of biday most commonly used throughout the world
now was developed in the United States, it had to
be exported elsewhere to become what it is today. For
the article, this episode is based on Hows to work.
Spoke by email with Sarah Shearer, owner of Clean Water
Bidays in Squim, Washington. She explained the old type of biday,

(01:53):
the style that's a separate unit that sits next to
the toilet, is harder to work on. They require a
few thousand dollar remodel to install hall and they take
up a lot of space. Most Americans only see them
when they're on vacation in Europe, but they're still sold. Sometimes.
More common these days are the biday seats, an attachment
that it fixes to your toilet, replacing your old toilet seat.

(02:15):
This device sprays your bone with a jet of water.
It can be tap temperature or warmed with an inseat device.
Depending on how much you want to pay. There's a
front wash for cleaning the genitals. The biday attachment is
less expensive. You can buy a nice one and stick
it on your toilet yourself for less than four hundred bucks,
and some more basic models for much cheaper. It's also

(02:36):
more accessible than a traditional bidat, which requires the user
to do their business on the toilet, stand up, scooch
over to the biday and sit back down to do
the freshening up. A shearer said. The first rudimentary bidday
attachment was created in the US in the nineteen twenties.
It didn't get very popular in America, but it really
caught on in Asia, where it's been engineered into what

(02:58):
it is today. In Japan, for instance, biday attachments can
be found in eight percent of homes and in public restrooms.
Most are produced in South Korea and some in China.
Using a biday may sound like a difficult process and
could be a bit intimidating at first, but it's really
quite simple and depends on the type of biday that
you're using. You use the toilet as you normally would,

(03:21):
both for urination and for defecation. The biday can be
used after you wipe with toilet paper or without the
use of toilet paper a totally personal preference, So what
you do is locate the biday. There are three basic types, standalone,
seat mounted, or wall hanging. For the stand alone type,
you must move off the toilet and straddle the biday,
either facing the water jet or with your back to it,

(03:43):
again personal preference. For the type of biday attached to
the toilet seat, locate the controls, which will either be
mounted on the wall or attached to the seat itself.
The wall hanging type of BIDAY will function much as
a handheld shower device. Then when you're finished, by yourself off.
Some bday models have an air drying system, which you'll

(04:03):
operate with controls, and which can of course be used
in combination with toilet paper should you feel the need.
Some models don't include the air dry feature and necessitate
the use of toilet paper or towels. Although the days
definitely cannot ward off pregnancy or STDs, they can be
a healing balmb for other conditions. Shearer said. We see

(04:26):
them used most in the US for people who have
a medical need. Crones colitis, colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome.
The symptoms that make life hard with these conditions can
be alleviated with bida seats. General practitioners O b G
y n S and occupational therapists send patients to us
for a variety of conditions. We have people who used
to get urinary tract infections once or twice a month

(04:48):
come in and tell this they're down to three or
four times a year after getting a bida seat. It
can make an extreme difference. Not only that, but as
we age, it's more difficult to keep lean, particularly if
we develop arthritis or other rheumatic disease. It makes it
harder to maneuver a wipe or wash, and infections like
U T e S can be a lot more serious

(05:10):
and older patients. Bdays can help with this. A sharer said,
for a lot of aging people, the main thing that's
going to keep them independent and at home the longest
is their ability to toilet themselves. However, some research has
shown that bidats can make some conditions like anal fissures
and vaginal bacterial infections worse. If you're experiencing any kind

(05:33):
of medical issue, definitely consult a medical care provider before
self treating. On another hand, bidats might help the planet.
While it's true the bidats use water, it's not as
much as a luxurious shower. But the real savings come
in when you consider how much toilet paper you don't
have to use if you're using a bi day. Almost

(05:56):
of the toilet paper sold in the US comes from
the Virgin boreal forests Canada, which cover about six of
the country. They're making the air we breathe in addition
to the toilet paper we use, and the American lack
of interest in bidays means that although our country accounts
for only about four point five percent of the world's population,
our citizens use about of the world's toilet tissue, which

(06:20):
is why America might need to jump on that biday bandwagon.
Today's episode is based on the article getting to the
Bottom of the Biday on how stuff Works dot Com,
written by Jescelyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production of I
Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com,
and it is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts

(06:40):
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