From The Past: March 31, 2004
While watching an episode of House Invaders on BBC America I noticed something in one of the bathrooms that I haven’t seen since childhood here in the US. Can you guess what that might be? Well I will tell you: colored toilet paper. It looked to be a peachy color.
I can remember having pink, blue, and green toilet paper. I had often wondered why colored toilet paper wasn’t sold any longer, but had never actually investigated. I vowed to myself after seeing that pretty peachy paper on the BBC that I was going to get to the bottom of the colored paper mystery.
After much studying it seems that it is as hazardous to our health as asbestos or lead paint. Several websites I visited were written by women who said, “Say no to designer toilet paper”. They stated that using colored paper made them inherit vaginal itching and infections. Once they went back to the pure white paper, all symptoms stopped. Other sites state that colored paper can irritate hemorrhoids, cause rectal itching or urinary tract infections. Hmm, now that’s a pleasant thought.
My question now is: why is colored paper still apparently being sold in England? Maybe it wasn’t actually peachy paper; it very well could have been that it looked peachy on television, but was really white. At any rate, I’m glad that I finally investigated and found out why the color disappeared.
but they still sometimes have patterned paper, or at least patterned paper towels, so i wonder how the dye works with that, I know you don’t use paper towels as intimately as toilet paper, but i’d want it to be just as sanitary if i wipe my hands with it, and some people use it to sop liquid/oil off of food. anyway, how ironic that a discussion of haute toilet paper comes up now, in times when your lucky to find any at all.