In the News — loo blockages

Luxury rolls ‘behind loo blockages’

LONDON (Press Association) — The popularity of luxury toilet tissue is putting a strain on the nation’s drains, according to a study. Thicker toilet paper and moisture wipes are being blamed for causing more bathroom blockages. Energy giant British Gas, which has a plumbing arm with 1.2 million customers, unblocked more than 35,000 toilets in the first six months of this year – a 10% increase on the same period last year. It believes modern toilet papers are partly to blame and commissioned research to find out how long it took different products to disintegrate in water. Independent scientific research firm Advantica put a number of toilet papers and moisture wipes through a series of tests. A “low price” toilet tissue from Sainsbury’s took just three minutes to break up while a recycled variety from the same supermarket lasted a minute longer. At the other end of the scale, Kandoo, moist wipes designed for children, failed to break down after five days. The same was true for moist wipes made by Andrex. Alan McLaughlin, spokesman for British Gas, said: “The explosion in luxury toilet paper is placing the UK’s toilets under considerable strain. Our tests have revealed that some paper takes hours to disintegrate. This is resulting in our plumbers being called out more often.” He added: “It seems quite clear from these results that toilet paper specifically aimed at kids might be kind to them but could be putting real strain on your pipe work and drains. Even newspaper broke down quicker.”

British Gas recently acquired Dyno Rod, the UK’s largest emergency plumbing business.

~ by bibliophilist on Monday, 22 November 2004.