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A pee-repellant paint to protect public walls

Last Updated 03 September 2015, 18:34 IST

The city of San Francisco, in the US state of California, has found a novel method to deal with the problem of public urination.  City officials are now trying out a pee-repellant paint that not only protects public walls from bodily fluids but also splashes the urine back on the offenders.

The London Daily Mail reports that the city is testing a new urine-repellant paint that ‘bounces back’ the urine of anyone who relieves himself in public. City workers have already painted 10 walls in badly affected areas of San Francisco with a special ultraviolet coated ‘super-hydrophobic’ paint that repels almost any liquid.  If an offender tries to urinate on a coated wall, the urine instead of running down the wall, will spray back and probably hit his trousers and shoes.

Signs on the wall in English, Spanish and Chinese advise anyone caught short to ‘Hold it! Seek relief in an appropriate place’.

Officials said it was far cheaper to treat the wall with the urine-repellant paint than to send out staff to clean it. Made in Florida by Ultra Tech International Inc, the Ultra-Ever Dry paint uses special technology to create a surface with tiny patterns of geometric shapes that have ‘peaks’. It is these high points that repel water, some oils and other liquids, unlike any other coating.

The German city of Hamburg had its own fair share of pee problems, so officials in the city painted walls in the St Pauli nightclub district with pee-repellant paint earlier this year.  That inspired San Francisco officials to embark on their own pilot programme.

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(Published 03 September 2015, 15:02 IST)

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