Originally Posted by
cyccommute
The likelihood of encountering carbon monoxide in a Port-a-potty is almost nonexistent. There is no combustion going on inside the toilet vault. You
might encounter some carbon monoxide if someone set the Port-a-Potty on fire but there are other concerns in that event.
Yes, there are some sulfur compounds present...hydrogen sulfide being the most prevelent and the most dangerous...but those are in very low concentrations. Animals can detect sulfur compounds at extremely low concentrations...0.47 parts per billion is the human detection threshold. Toxicity occurs at about 350 parts per
million or about 350,000 ppb. A ppb, by the way, is a pinch of salt in 10 tons of potato chips or one second in about 32 years (32 years is about a billion seconds). I've been in some rank PortaJohns but nothing that rank.
Porta-a-Pottys are also ventilated so that cuts down on the gas build up. You don't want to have people using them falling over dead...it's bad for business.
As for reaching down into the vault, I'm not going to test this but I reasonably certain that an average adult could reach each corner of the vault from the toilet seat with just a bit of stretch. A dropped item like a phone isn't going to migrate to the outer corners quickly either. There's a lot of,um,stuff...the one place where it would be appropriate to use the proper word and the filters won't allow it
...in the way.
All I am saying is there is ventilation above the toilet seats, but not necessarily below them. I work in a broad environments where there are more than just port-a-potties (CO, Methane, Sulferous gases, etc), and they all are heavier than oxygen and can lower the amount of oxygen. The key thing is that if the oxygen concentration drops below the right level, it can cause problems.
It's just worth being cautious and not stick your head in below the toilet seat. I tend to ride in places where the toilets are vaulted toilets not port-a-potties, and I would not be able to reach things. I only encounter port-a-potties in races, so yes I probably could reach a phone in that environment, but most toilets I encounter I couldn't.
Anyway, enough of that. I only wanted to note that there is a legitimate risk of death, and as long as someone is aware of it, they will improve their chance of survival and could perhaps retrieve a lost item. It's better to be cautious than to assume it isn't going to kill you at all. Look up information about confined space deaths. They happen, mostly because people think it can't happen to them. It can, and it does.