AIRPORT RESTROOMS ARE SURROGATE MARKERS OF A NATION’S HEALTH

By Akin Ojumu

“Cleanliness is next to godliness” or “Cleanliness is godliness.” That’s a phrase commonly attributed to John Wesley, the English theologian and evangelist who founded the Methodist church. He is said to have first mentioned it in a sermon he gave almost 250 years ago.

To many of us, the phrase is nothing more than a cliché employed by adults who are trying to impress upon a child the importance of personal hygiene.

While the modern use of phrase may have been credited to John Wesley, the concept of an outward cleanliness as a reflection of an inward purity is as ancient as the Babylonian and the Hebrew religious worship.

Prominent in the Hebrew Torah – as well as the Christian Bible – are prescriptions and regulations for washing of hands and other body parts before a Hebrew can enter into the Temple to offer sacrifices.

Due to the nature of my job, I get to do a fair bit of traveling. These trips take me through many airports in many countries around the world. Along with the various things the average traveller considers important to have in an airport, I’m particularly interested in the state of the airport restrooms.

Why the restroom, you may ask? Be rest assured, it isn’t that I have a sensitive bladder or jittery bowel. My fascination with airport restrooms is much simpler than that.

Surrogate markers are often used in therapeutic clinical trials as a measure of effect of a specific treatment that may correlate with a real clinical endpoint. They are laboratory measurements or physical signs that can be used as a substitute for a clinically meaningful endpoint that’s a direct measure of how a patient feels, functions, or survives. and that is expected to predict the effect of the therapy.

Airport restrooms are surrogate markers of the state of that nation. You can tell a lot about the health of the soul of a people by the condition of the restrooms in their airports. A country that considers it important to keep airport restrooms clean is a country that values keeping the nation clean. 

When there’s cleanliness in the airport restrooms, there’s most likely going to be orderliness in the entire nation. A country that sees value in maintaining their restrooms in a hygienic condition is more than likely to have a leadership comprised of responsible and responsive politicians. 

It’s in such a country that you’d find ordinary citizens on the streets who understand their individual roles in ensuring a society that is conducive for living for everyone. More than likely, it’s a country that maintains functioning systems and effective structures that allow for growth and development. It’s a country that values the worth and dignity of human life.

And I’ll even go as far as to rephrase John Wesley’s “cleanliness is next to godliness” to read “Cleanliness of the airport restrooms is next to godliness of a nation.” 

So, next time you pass through your nation’s airport, I suggest you pop into the loo to check what condition it’s in.

Original published on February 25, 2019.