Why using recycled toilet paper is dangerous to your health, and three green, nontoxic and sustainable alternatives to consider instead.
Like many of you good little girls and boys out there trying to be responsible citizens of Planet Earth, I bought recycled toilet paper in an attempt to be more environmentally conscious.
Alas.
This method of going green in the bathroom is not such a good idea after all. In fact, it is a most decidedly BAD idea.
Green does not necessarily mean healthy!
Recycled Toilet Paper is Toxic
Two studies published in Environmental Science & Technology have shown that BPA and cousin chemical BPS used in “BPA free products” but also highly estrogenic in nature, are much more pervasive in our common, everyday products than we could have imagined.
Yeah, that BPA free stuff is no better and will mess up your hormones just as much. But then, you sensed that was the case already didn’t you? I know I did.
The term “safe chemical” is kind of an oxymoron. If a product contains chemicals, just assume they are toxic unless proven otherwise.
How does all this relate to recycled toilet paper?
Hormone Disruptors in Recycled Paper
These two studies involved examination of hundreds of samples of paper from everyday items such as toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, newspapers, magazines, tickets, and even business cards.
Most of the paper samples tested contained the hormone disruptors BPA, BPS or BOTH.
How and why the paper was so contaminated is a question that requires further study to ascertain.
But for now, the key is to avoid thermal paper as much as possible. This stuff is the worst offender perhaps because it is often recycled and may somehow become contaminated during the reclamation process.
The ink itself may also be a culprit in the overall toxicity of recycled toilet paper.
In fact, it is best to avoid touching all recycled paper period! Sister chemicals BPA and BPS absorb very readily through the skin.
You don’t have to eat it to have them enter your bloodstream.
If your job involves handling thermal paper receipts, for example, best to wear gloves. And, if you can turn down receipts and instead rely on an online itemization of your expenditures, that would be a good step as well.
TP Used for Thin Skin Near Reproductive Areas
As for your backside, opt for toilet paper made from virgin pulp or better still, bamboo toilet paper.
This is an especially important area to protect from BPA and BPS as the skin in these areas is thin and delicate.
This means that the chemicals can more easily enter the bloodstream with very close proximity to the reproductive organs.
Green AND Safe Options to Toilet Paper
If you don’t want to change habits right now, at least switch to bamboo toilet paper (I suggest this brand). It is nontoxic and sustainably produced.
If you really want to go green with your toilet habits, skip the toilet paper entirely and invest in a bidet attachment for your toilet. They are very reasonably priced and easy to install.
If this European method of saving trees doesn’t work for you, your other option is to go the reusable TP cloths route.
Any of these approaches makes for a sanitary, nontoxic and sustainable bathroom experience.
Reference
(1) Bottom Line Publications, Toxic Toilet Paper? You Got It
@Leslie, make sure it’s not poison ivy 😉
It is to rough for me 😉 Many people do not realize but many farmers own land that they grow trees just for paper products. When the trees are processed they must replant with trees within a year in order to get the Farming TAX Bre
ak on the property for growing the trees for paper products. If they do not replant they lose the tax adjustment. While it still hurts to see them take down a tree people must realize that many of the pulp trees for paper come from tree farms. Cutting down Rain Forest is different and should be stopped.
Time to make the switch to family cloth, people.
thanks! I have not trusted BPA-free plastics and this makes sense to me.
i had a bidet growing up, but thought it made an excellent barbie shower and swimming pool *insert collective ewwwww* BUT to my credit we are Dutch which means everything was incredibly clean all the time. 😉
recycled toilet paper just sounds wrong 😉
Sad news. But obvious now that you say it. So much paper that makes it into the recycling stream has BPA on it. I only recently, personally, started making sure to keep all that thermal paper out of my paper recycling bin. I have always looked for highest post-consumer content in my recycled paper products. But now I will move back to buying TP with higher PRE-consumer recycled content, because that type of pulp is far less likely to be contaminated with BPA.
I am very concerned about BPA but I am equally concerned about cutting down trees to flush down the toilet. Also about the manufacturing methods for some virgin toilet paper (added bleaches & whiteners — you don’t want those on your most absorbent skin either).
424,000: The number of trees that would be saved if every household in the U.S. replaced just one 500 sheet roll of virgin toilet paper with just one recycled roll. -Natural Resources Defense Council.
This has always been my go-to location for good, well labeled recycled content paper products. They have many tissue options with different amounts of post-consumer labelled.
Sad news. But obvious now that you say it. So much paper that makes it into the recycling stream has BPA on it. I only recently, personally, started making sure to keep all that thermal paper out of my paper recycling bin. I have always looked for highest post-consumer content in my recycled paper products. But now I will move back to buying TP with higher PRE-consumer recycled content, because that type of pulp is far less likely to be contaminated with BPA.
I am very concerned about BPA but I am equally concerned about cutting down trees to flush down the toilet. Also about the manufacturing methods for some virgin toilet paper (added bleaches & whiteners — you don’t want those on your most absorbent skin either).
424,000: The number of trees that would be saved if every household in the U.S. replaced just one 500 sheet roll of virgin toilet paper with just one recycled roll. -Natural Resources Defense Council.
This has always been my go-to location for good, well labeled recycled content paper products. They have many tissue options with different amounts of post-consumer labelled.
@Leslie I felt the same way when I learned about this!!
Folks who like camping definitely have the right idea! Europeans too with the bidet.