What harm does toilet paper cause? The best toilet paper What is the name of toilet paper
We usually don't think twice when choosing toilet paper, because this is such an ordinary thing that it seems even funny to talk about it. On the other hand, if you think about it, this is indeed one of the most frequently used items in our Everyday life. Here are some tips from doctors, environmentalists and ordinary users to help you make your choice.
Fun fact
It is interesting that in sociological surveys about which modern conveniences are most taken for granted by them, users gave first place to this particular hygiene item:
- 69% - toilet paper;
- 42% - zipper;
- 38% - frozen foods.
Such a common thing
There are not just many, but many varieties of toilet paper that are available for sale today. It seems like every company is trying to outdo the competition in the number of layers, softness, and thickness of their toilet paper. For those who are especially demanding, there is paper of any colors, with drawings, strawberry or chamomile scents
What are the requirements for toilet paper?
- Sufficient softness. After all, we use it for the most delicate places, and many women are also accustomed to using paper for “quick” hygiene of their intimate areas.
- Relief. Paper with relief and perforation has better absorbency.
- Environmental friendliness. The paper must be made without chlorine (this must be indicated on the packaging), be waste-free, and easily disintegrate when wet.
- Convenient breakaway line. The cheapest gray paper does not have these lines. But their presence makes the paper easy to use and economical. The easier and more correctly the paper is torn off at the dotted line, the better the quality of the paper.
Main types of paper
In terms of the material used to make it, toilet paper can be divided into two large groups.
- Recycled paper (waste paper). She has a characteristic grey colour or a grayish tint (so-called “Soviet” type paper).
- Pulp paper. It is delicate and soft, pure color or snow-white. Due to its thin texture, rolls of such paper are usually made of two or three layers for greater strength. The more layers, the better, and the more expensive the paper.
What can I say here - on the one hand, doctors say that it is better to use the most delicate and soft cellulose paper good quality. Paper that is too hard and contains solid particles can injure the skin, which can cause inflammation and contribute to the spread of infections. There is anecdotal evidence that lead contained in waste paper can negatively affect human health.
On the other hand, recycled paper is much more environmentally friendly. By purchasing it, we take care of environment. Don't forget that trees are cut down to produce white paper.
How to treat all kinds of fragrant and colored paper rolls? Is it harmful to health? And sometimes manufacturers also make paper with softening ingredients. Doctors advise: white, unscented paper is best, especially if you are prone to allergies. In any case, if you want to buy something that smells and colored paper, carefully make sure that you do not have any skin reactions to it.
Choose soft toilet paper if:
- You have sensitive skin.
- You value comfort even in small things.
- You don't mind paying a high price.
You can use unbleached, inexpensive toilet paper if:
- You can easily use not very soft toilet paper: you do not suffer from skin sensitivity and there are no other similar problems.
- Quality and reliability are important to you, but you also want to save money.
- Eco-friendliness is important to you.
You can save money by buying a pack or several packs of toilet paper in bulk (this is especially true if you have big family) - this is often cheaper than buying single rolls. Only medium and high quality rolls are sold in packages.
NB! For people who have proctological diseases, doctors do not recommend using paper - only damp softening wipes.
Cheap toilet paper has not changed since the days when queues lined up for it in Soviet stores. It is still sold in rolls wrapped in paper tape, even the shade is often the same - gray.
Manufacturers of such paper like to emphasize that its length is exactly 54 m (however, they often deceive - see table). For some reason, this particular footage has been considered optimal since Soviet times. More expensive multilayer paper is shorter, but there is no need to fold it - it costs less. But it has been noticed that it ends faster.
But it is more convenient to use. Who is unfamiliar with the situation when, when printing a cheap roll, along with the tightly glued packaging, you tear several layers of the paper itself? Poor perforation - the tear line of the sheets - can also make you angry. A torn roll looks, you see, unaesthetic. However, it turned out that even among inexpensive ones there is paper that divides perfectly evenly.
From old newspapers
On sale you can find both waste paper processing products and paper made from pure cellulose. Information about the composition is printed on the packaging. True, it can be assumed that the inscription “100 percent cellulose” does not always mean that the raw material is primary, that is, not obtained from old newspapers. Our examination has shown that paper made from virgin fiber is softer and, importantly, dissolves faster in water without clogging the drain.
To check the last parameter, we armed ourselves with a stopwatch and placed the leaves in water, which we “twirled” into a funnel using a kitchen blender. Once in the whirlpool, the thick three-layer paper almost instantly disintegrated into the finest fibers. But the sheets from the “Soviet” rolls and the two-layer “Zewa” first turned into wet lumps - it took them much longer to dissolve.
It turns out that cheap paper is more likely to cause clogged sewer pipes, especially outside the city, in a country house where the water pressure is weaker.
Expert opinion
Badma BASHANKAEV, Researcher Department of Coloproctology and Pelvic Floor Surgery of the Russian scientific center surgery named after acad. B.V. Petrovsky RAMS:
- Too hard toilet paper, and even more so “Soviet” type paper - gray, in which unmilled particles of paper are even visible (they look like wood shavings) - suitable for public places, but not for home. Mechanical irritation can injure the delicate mucous membrane (and it contains many different receptors) and provoke inflammation. Therefore, it is natural that in modern world People have long abandoned the use of newspapers as a means of personal hygiene. The softer the toilet paper, the more layers it has and the smaller the grain, the better. Sometimes toilet paper contains various softening creams, perfumes, and complex colors: before using it, make sure you are not allergic to such additional components. People who have proctological diseases - hemorrhoids, etc. - should not use paper. They are recommended to wash or use wet wipes.
| Roll price, roll length, price per meter | Perforation | Time dissolution in water |
Information on packaging/ Our observations |
|
| Soft sign 1 layer |
7.70 rub. 50.5 m 15 kop. |
Doesn't come off along the line | 12 sec. | “100% cellulose”/Not very soft, embossed. Sold in paper packaging glued to the roll. Difficult to print. |
| Syktyvkar 1 layer |
7.70 rub. 44 m 17 kopecks |
10 sec | “Without household waste paper”/Gray with black speckles, rough. Sold in paper packaging glued to the roll. Difficult to print. | |
| Zewa Plus | 2 layers 11.5 rub. 22 m 52 kopecks |
Comes off unevenly | 8 sec. | With fragrance/Not very soft, with embossing. When printing a roll, the top two layers are torn. |
| Kleenex Sunny Yellow 2 layers |
12 rub. 19.3 m 62 kop. |
Comes off very easily, evenly | 4 sec. | "100% virgin cellulose"/Soft, embossed. The roll is easy to print. |
| Lotus Family Flowers 2 layers | 13.25 rub. 21 m 63 kopecks |
Comes off with difficulty, unevenly | 4 sec. | "Primary and recycled fiber"/Not very soft, with embossing. The roll is difficult to print, paper delaminates |
Toilet paper is one of the most popular consumer goods. Now there is a wide variety of toilet paper on the domestic market. Now there is a wide variety of toilet paper on the domestic market, your choice of single-layer, multi-layer paper or even with flavors.
Manufacturers produce not only white paper, but also models of different colors and scents, for example, Zewa Deluxe or Lotus Aroma. However, this does not mean the product is of high quality. Moreover, scented and/or colored toilet paper, according to experts, can cause irritation and allergic reactions in sensitive areas of the skin.
Criteria for evaluating toilet paper.
Having studied the wishes and preferences of consumers, we have derived the most important criteria for assessing the quality of toilet paper:
- Toilet paper should be strong enough. Otherwise you will have to unwind large quantity every time you use it, and the roll will be used up faster.
- Absorbency (absorption) and solubility in water are indicators of efficiency: highly absorbent paper is consumed more slowly, and highly soluble paper will allow you to avoid unpleasant blockages in pipes.
- The softness of toilet paper determines comfort and ease of use - soft, it will avoid irritation on sensitive areas of the skin.
- The ease of tearing off sheets of toilet paper affects ease of use. Although all the models we tested are perforated along tear lines, not all of them tear equally easily. High-quality paper should be easily torn off exactly along the line and without tears along the vertical sheet.
How to save money when buying toilet paper?
Toilet paper is a product of everyday use, the purchase of which can significantly save money. We advise you to pay attention to the length of the toilet paper. The results of our cost per meter calculations showed that the price of a package or roll often differs greatly from the actual cost of a meter of toilet paper. By looking at the roll length indicated on the package, you can understand how much paper you are paying for.
When choosing paper, you should not focus on price. The high price of toilet paper does not mean high quality. For example, during laboratory tests, Zewa Deluxe toilet paper showed the highest results - far from the best expensive model On the market. As a rule, manufacturers make paper either denser at the expense of softness and solubility, or, on the contrary, soft at the expense of strength.
Before buying toilet paper, you should pay attention to the thickness of the paper. Thin and fragile paper is consumed 20-30% faster than thick paper, so its actual cost will be higher.
Do not forget that packaging can be different sizes: By purchasing packs of 9-12 rolls, you can save up to 30%.
As we embrace the doctrine of a comfort-obsessed society, certain parts of our bodies have become so delicate that they must be wiped with three-ply, scented, shiny white, patterned toilet paper. Before I give you some of the arguments for switching to eco-friendly toilet paper and share my thoughts on which one is better, let's look at some of the concerns I've heard about switching to a different type of paper:
She's tougher than usual. Not always, there are papers made from recycled materials of very good quality. But if you have hemorrhoids or too soft skin on a child or puppy, then maybe you should just wash it.
It's more expensive. Perhaps good eco-friendly ones are more expensive than usual, but this is your ethical choice. Think about it and make up for the small increase in cost with your awareness.
Other papers smell nicer and look more beautiful. Scented toilet papers contain chemical substances, used to maintain odor and this can cause all sorts of health problems in our growing children. And a brilliant white or pleasant cream color is given to it by chemical treatment with chlorine and other substances. Therefore, it is better to think and make the right choice.
What is eco-friendly toilet paper?
In the majority developed countries world degree reuse paper is constantly growing. IN European Union Almost 60% of paper is reused, in the USA - about 50%. Once upon a time, our country was also at the level of average world standards in this indicator, but now it is far behind: we use less than a quarter of the waste paper generated.
According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, "every tonne of recycled paper saves 13 trees, 2.5 barrels of oil, 4,100 kilowatts of electricity, four cubic meters of waste and 31,380 liters of water." In addition, 400 kg of CO2 is saved.
The average person uses about 23 rolls of toilet paper per year. One tree, if properly processed, can make about 1,000 rolls of paper. If you multiply by the population of our country, you can get the average number of trees cut down per year.
Environmentalists claim that about 10 thousand hectares of forest are cut down in Russia every year for the production of toilet paper.
By purchasing only recycled paper, a family of three or four people can save one tree in a year.
What types of eco-friendly toilet paper are there?
There are 2 types of recycled paper:
- consumption ( office paper, waste paper)
- household waste and production by-products - trimmings, etc.
And of course the packaging. The best eco-friendly toilet paper comes in recycled packaging.
Why choose paper from recycled paper?
The most common toilet paper in our country, which can be considered environmentally friendly, is paper made from recycled paper. Previously, when waste paper was actively handed over to collection points, there was much more such paper. Now it is more difficult to find, but it is possible.
There is no need to use virgin cellulose when creating toilet paper. Toilet paper does not require special strength and durability, nor supernatural whiteness. This means that it can be produced from waste paper without cutting down forests.
Recycled paper is environmentally friendly. Its use helps preserve forests and reduce the number of household waste. One ton of waste paper saves about five cubic meters of wood - or 10-20 trees. In addition, recycling waste paper is a much cleaner and less energy-intensive process than pulping.
Manufacturers:“ZEWA plus”, “ZEWA 54 meters”, “Lotus Colours”, “TORK”, “Tolyattinskaya”, “T/B 55m”, “Bogatyr 65m”, “Mishka”, “Comfortable”, “Shine”, “Premial” "", "Leaf", "Baikal", "Belek", "Fluff", "Lilac", "Lily", "Primula 55 waste paper"
Toilet paper is a daily personal hygiene product that helps keep certain areas of the body clean after defecation. These areas of the body are extremely sensitive and delicate, they may have microcracks, and it is very important not to damage them or cause infection. Therefore, choosing toilet paper is a serious issue, and when deciding on it, it is necessary to take care of safety from a medical point of view.
Making toilet paper is a very complex process. The paper must be soft and must have tear lines in strictly defined places. To avoid clogging sewer pipes, the paper must completely decompose in water.
Raw materials
The following raw materials are used for the production of toilet paper: natural cellulose, recycled materials, mixed raw materials.
Naturally, toilet paper is made from cellulose (a polysaccharide, the main component plant walls) is more expensive, but has significant differences in quality: it completely dissolves in water, which is important for the sewage system; is the most hygienic, since it does not contain harmful impurities such as lead and chlorine; noticeably softer to the touch and has increased absorbency, which is again important for many. Toilet paper is made from natural cellulose and looks the most aesthetically pleasing: the color can be any, but it must be clean and unblemished.
Toilet paper made from recycled materials - waste paper and cardboard - has its advantages: it is quite cheap, has good hygroscopicity and density, meets high sanitary standards (made with the use of antiseptics and anti-foam agents), but is denser, rougher, single-layer, and does not have a pure color , and even painted green, blue or pink, has a grayish tint.
Safety
Color . The safest color is white as it is not dyed. The paper may still be white after treatment with chlorine. This is environmentally friendly paper, but using such toilet paper is not very pleasant. The packaging should state that no chlorine bleach was used.
Also, the paper can be gray, less aesthetically pleasing, single-layer.
According to sales statistics, consumers still prefer cheaper paper, grey, made from recycled materials. This is understandable and normal, the main thing is that this paper complies with GOST and all sanitary and hygienic standards. In addition, paper made from recycled materials saves wood
Often the paper is tinted some color or a pleasant smell is added.
It is not allowed to add antiseptics, flavors and dyes that can cause allergies.
Best before date toilet paper up to two years. Expired paper loses its useful properties.
Softness. The paper should be soft. Hard paper can cause discomfort and discomfort.
The packaging must indicate the GOST of the corresponding country, the address of the manufacturer, footage (on average 54 meters), weight (from 13 to 40 g, depending on the number of layers) and composition.
Hygiene
The paper should absorb everything. Embossed paper absorbs much better.
The paper can be single-layered or multi-layered. It is better that the paper has 3-4 layers, not glued together, with an air gap. Two-layer and three-layer toilet paper is made from natural cellulose or mixed raw materials and is the most expensive. Single-layer is made from recycled materials, therefore the cheapest. But the number of layers does not always ensure the quality of the paper; if the paper embossing is poor, the paper will delaminate, causing inconvenience during use.
Convenience
The paper should have a clear tear line at the perforation and be easily torn off the roll.
Zero waste
The paper should completely dissolve in water.
In Russia, only 25% of paper is produced from waste paper, so about 10 hectares of forest are cut down every year.
We wish you a good choice!