Archives: A bathroom fan that sucks

Twenty-five years ago today (May 11, 1992), this item led my then Monday-only Huckleberries:

The commode in the new shop building at the Fighting Creek Landfill needs a warning sign: “Please fasten your seat belts.” Seems a subcontractor installed a fan that sucks air out of the can at 1,000 cubic feet per minute. Normal suction fans operate at about 50 CFM. The pressure requires bathroom users to pay attention to business or risk being embarrassed. The suction is so intense, reports a courthouse mole, that it sometimes opens the outer door of the bathroom. County officials want the subcontractor to replace the suction fan from hell before it slurps up a landfill employee.