Toilet-related injuries and deaths explained

There have been many toilet-related injuries and deaths throughout history and in urban legends.

Accidental injuries

Infants and toddlers have fallen headfirst into toilet bowls and drowned. Safety devices exist to help prevent such accidents.[1] [2] Injuries to adults include bruised buttocks and tail bones, as well as dislocated hips have resulted from unexpectedly sitting on the toilet bowl rim because the seat is up or loose. Injuries can also be caused by pinching due to splits in plastic seats and/or by splinters from wooden seats, or if the toilet itself collapses or shatters under the weight of the user. Older high-tank cast-iron cisterns have been known to detach from the wall when the chain is pulled to flush, causing injuries to the user.[3] The 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in Public Health was awarded to three physicians from the Glasgow Western Infirmary for a 1993 case report on wounds sustained to the buttocks due to collapsing toilets.[4] Furthermore, injuries are frequently sustained by people who stand on toilets to reach a height, then slip and fall. There are also instances of people slipping on a wet bathroom floor or from a bath and concussing themselves on the fixture.

Toilet-related injuries are surprisingly common, with some estimates ranging as high as 40,000 in the US every year.[5] In the past, this number would have been much higher, due to the material from which toilet paper was made. This was shown in a 1935 Northern Tissue advertisement which depicted splinter-free toilet paper.[6] In 2012, 2.3 million toilets in the United States, and about 9,400 in Canada, were recalled due to faulty pressure-assist flush mechanisms which put users at risk of the fixture exploding.[7]

Injuries caused by animals

There are also injuries caused by animals. Some black widow spiders like to spin their web below the toilet seat because insects abound in and around it. Therefore, several people have been bitten while using a toilet, particularly outhouse toilets. Although there is immediate pain at the bite site, these bites are rarely fatal.[8] The danger of spiders living beneath toilet seats is the subject of Slim Newton's comic 1972 country song "The Redback on the Toilet Seat".

It has been reported that in some cases rats crawl up through toilet sewer pipes and emerge in the toilet bowl, so that toilet users may be at risk of having a rat bite their buttocks. Many rat exterminators do not believe this, as pipes, at generally six inches (15 centimeters) wide, are too large for rats to climb and are also very slippery. Reports by janitors are always on the top floor, and could involve the rats on the roof, entering the soil pipe through the roof vent, lowering themselves into the pipe, and then into the toilet.[9]

In May 2016, an 11-foot snake, a reticulated python, emerged from a squat toilet and bit the man using it on his penis at his home in Chachoengsao Province, Thailand. Both the victim and the python survived.[10] [11]

Self-induced injury

Some instances of toilet-related deaths are attributed to the drop in blood pressure due to the parasympathetic nervous system during bowel movements. This effect may be magnified by existing circulatory issues. It is further possible that people succumb on the toilet to chronic constipation, because the Valsalva maneuver is often dangerously used to aid in the expulsion of feces from the rectum during a bowel movement. According to Sharon Mantik Lewis, Margaret McLean Heitkemper and Shannon Ruff Dirksen, the "Valsalva maneuver occurs during straining to pass a hardened stool. If defecation is suppressed over long periods, problems can occur, such as constipation or stool impaction. Defecation can be facilitated by the Valsalva maneuver. This maneuver involves contraction of the chest muscles on a closed glottis with simultaneous contraction of the abdominal muscles."[12] This means that people can die while "straining at stool." In chapter 8 of their Abdominal Emergencies, David Cline and Latha Stead wrote that "autopsy studies continue to reveal missed bowel obstruction as an unexpected cause of death".[13]

A 2001 Sopranos episode "He is Risen" shows a fictional depiction of the risk, when the character Gigi Cestone has a heart attack on the toilet of his social club while straining to defecate.[14]

Exploding toilets

In the Victorian era, there was a perceived risk of toilets exploding. These scenarios typically include a flammable substance (either accidentally or deliberately) being introduced into the toilet water, and a lit match or cigarette igniting and exploding the toilet.[15] In 2014, Sloan's Flushmate pressure-assisted flushing system, which uses compressed air to force waste down the drain, was recalled after the company received reports of the air tank failing under pressure and shattering the porcelain.[16]

Historical deaths

Possible occurrences

Urban legends

Urban legends have been reported regarding the dangers of using a toilet in a variety of situations. Several of them have been shown to be questionable. These include some cases of the presence of venomous spiders but do not include the Australian redback spider who has a reputation for hiding under toilet seats.[37] These recent fears have emerged from a series of hoax emails originating in the Blush Spider hoax, which began circulating the internet in 1999.[38] Spiders have also been reported to live under seats of airplanes, however, the cleaning chemicals used in the toilets would result in an incompatibility with spider's survival.[39]

In large cities like New York City, sewer rats often have mythical status regarding size and ferocity, resulting in tales involving the rodents crawling up sewer pipes to attack an unwitting occupant. Of late, stories about terrorists booby trapping the seat to castrate their targets have begun appearing. Another myth is the risk of being sucked into an aircraft lavatory as a result of vacuum pressure during a flight.

See also

References

37. PBS.org Elvis’ addiction was the perfect prescription for an early death

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Bathing an infant: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. medlineplus.gov. 25 July 2017.
  2. Web site: Newborn care and safety - womenshealth.gov. womenshealth.gov. 2016-12-14.
  3. Web site: Malone v Laskey [1907] 2 KB 141]. LawTeacher. 2021-07-08.
  4. Wyatt JP, McNaughton GW, Tullett WM. 25430948. The collapse of toilets in Glasgow. Scottish Medical Journal. December 1993 . 38. 6. 185 . 8146638. 10.1177/003693309303800609.
  5. Web site: 40,000 toilet-related injuries in the US, Every Year. https://web.archive.org/web/20111129014336/http://factspy.net/40000-toilet-related-injuries-in-the-us-every-year/. dead. 2011-11-29. FactSpy.net. 2015-10-25. en.
  6. Web site: History of Toilet Paper. nobodys-perfect.com. 2015-10-25.
  7. Web site: Consumer Product Safety Commission News Release: Flushmate Recalls Flushmate® III Pressure-Assisted Flushing System Due to Impact and Laceration Hazards. June 21, 2012.
  8. See, for instance, Raymond W. Thorp and Weldon Dwight Woodson, Black Widow: America's Most Poisonous Spider (The University of North Carolina Press, 1945), p.65, 156, 188. James A. Wilkerson, "Black Widow Spider Bites." In Medicine for Mountaineering & Other Wilderness Activities (2001), p.298.
  9. Web site: The Straight Dope: Can rats swim up through the (urk) toilet?. www.straightdope.com. 2015-10-25. 1984-03-16.
  10. Web site: Cowen. Trace William. Python Chomps Down on Dude's Penis While He Uses Toilet. Complex Media Inc.. 27 May 2016.
  11. News: Python in Thai toilet gives man nasty shock. 27 May 2016. BBC News. 2016-05-27.
  12. See Sharon Mantik Lewis, Margaret McLean Heitkemper, Shannon Ruff Dirksen, eds., Medical-Surgical Nursing: Assessment and Management of Clinical Problems, 6th edition, Volume 2 (2004), p.951.
  13. David Cline and Latha Stead, Abdominal Emergencies (2007), p.56-65
  14. Web site: The Sopranos Episode 34 He is Risen Synopsis. HBO. 18 July 2016. 10 August 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140810045144/http://www.hbo.com/the-sopranos/episodes/3/34-he-is-risen/synopsis.html. dead.
  15. Web site: 10 dangerous things in Victorian/Edwardian homes. BBC News. 16 December 2013.
  16. News: Exploding toilets spark recall of flushing system. CBS News. 24 January 2014. 27 August 2014.
  17. Web site: QI : Quite Interesting. qi.com. 2015-10-25.
  18. The Assassination of Godfrey the Hunchback: http://www.keesn.nl/murder/text_en.htm
  19. Horace Walpole, Memoires of the Last Ten Years of the Reign of George the Second (1822), vol. 2, p. 454.
  20. Ted Anton, Eros, Magic, and the Murder of Professor Culianu
  21. Bosworth 1999
  22. "Elvis died on the toilet", says Greil Marcus, Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession (Harvard University Press 1991), p. 154.
  23. Joshua A. Perper and Stephen J. Cina, When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How (Springer Science 2010), p. 211.
  24. Dylan Jones, Elvis Has Left the Building: The Day the King Died (New York and London 2014), chapter 2: The Day Elvis Died.
  25. Joel Williamson, Elvis Presley: A Southern Life (Oxford University Press 2014), p. 18.
  26. John Voelz, King Me (Littleton, CO 2010) writes, p. 10, "I was a kid when The King died on his throne. On August 16th, 1977, Elvis Presley died in his Graceland mansion. On the toilet. Well, on the floor. After he fell off the toilet. Not a very 'kingly' way to go."
  27. Web site: Book VIII. Duke Cheng . . Zuo . Qiuming . Zuo Qiuming . James . Legge . James Legge . University of Virginia . zh, en. 23 April 2012. Chapter X.
  28. Book: Henry of Huntingdon . Historia Anglorum . History of the English People. 2002 . 15.
  29. Jack Seward, Strange But True Stories from Japan (1999), p.231.
  30. Jonathan Goldstein, Lenny Bruce is Dead (2001).
  31. [National Transportation Safety Board]
  32. Shepherd, Chuck. News of the Weird, Miami New Times. 23 January 1997. Accessed 25 September 2011.
  33. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8030898.stm "US plane crash lands on toilets"
  34. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/jun/26/tory-christopher-shale-dead-glastonbury Senior Tory Christopher Shale found dead at Glastonbury festival
  35. Pascoe, David, How to keep your boat from sinking
  36. Boat Owners Association of The United States, Why sailboats sink, 2007
  37. Web site: Australiangeographic.com.au. 2014-04-22. 2014-03-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20140303161822/http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2012/08/gallery-australian-spiders-the-10-most-dangerous/australian-spiders-the-10-most-dangerous_image3. dead.
  38. Web site: UCR Spiders Site: Internet Hoax. spiders.ucr.edu. 2015-10-25. 2017-07-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20170721034639/http://spiders.ucr.edu/debunk.html. dead.
  39. Web site: The Straight Dope: Do poisonous spiders lurk under toilet seats?. www.straightdope.com. 2015-10-25. 2003-03-18.