Are you using wet wipes or moist toilet paper instead of dry toilet paper?

Last year we discussed on the blog whether flushable wipes were safe for flushing. Disposable wet wipes are in the news again, but this time for causing allergic reactions.

Researchers from The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota published a report stating that painful rashes and other allergic reactions that four people suffered from were caused from a chemical called methylchloroisothiazolinone or MCI found in moist toilet paper. MCI is used as a preservative. People with rashes and reactions did not realize that the wet wipes were a part of the problem.

Although not everyone is allergic to this chemical, about 3% of people do have adverse reactions, according to the Reuters article.

Healthmad reported that “MCI, is well documented as an allergen in Europe. In fact, Europe restricted the use of MCI because of the increased sensitivity they were seeing.”

So what should those who use moist toilet paper wipes do? Try using a dry product that does not contain the allergen. Or check the ingredient label for MCI.

ConsumerReports.org has just released a new, comprehensive report on Toilet Paper. They tested many of the biggest national and store brands to look at strength, softness, price, quality, and disintegration.

In terms of price, you can save over $100 dollars a year by purchasing store brand toilet paper from places like CostCo and Walmart, if you don’t mind sacrificing strength and softness.

In terms of softness, Charmin, Cottonelle, and Quilted Northern are still the choice of most consumers. The amount of plies doesn’t matter so much anymore, since innovative technology means that Charmin technically only has 1-ply, but the same thickness as a 3-ply toilet paper.

Flush-able wipes have become very popular, but they might not be so popular in your septic system. These flush-able wipes performed very poorly in their disintegration tests and may damage or back up your sewer or septic system. The advice is to throw them in the trash after you use them (but here at ToiletPaperWorld.com we think that sounds pretty gross…)

Lastly, they tested the top recycled toilet papers again- Marcal Sunrise and Seventh Generation. Last year they performed horribly on softness but have since been reformulated. The tests concluded that although both are a inexpensive green alternative, they don’t hold up against the traditional favorites in terms of softness or strength. However, a little bit of sacrifice on your bum might be worth it to save the trees. You can see the rest of our eco- friendly products at ToiletPaperWorld.com.

Though flushable wipes are marketed as a safe alternative to toilet paper, many people are still questioning whether or not these innovative wipes are the best choice for their pipes. To test this question, reporters for News Channel 5 of Cleveland, Ohio, took toilet paper and flushable wipes by a couple of leading paper companies and compared them.

To see how these claims hold up, a recent Consumers Report put three wipes, along with plain old toilet paper, through a disintegration test. It simulates what may happen when flushing and gives consumers a look at how the product could affect their pipes. Toilet paper tends to break down in about eight seconds. In contrast, flushable wipes lasted well beyond 30 minutes.

Kim Leman of Consumer Reports said of the experiment, “Although they say flushable, our disintegration tests show they don’t break down easily, which could pose problems with your plumbing or septic system.”

A spokesperson for Kimberly-Clark Corporation, which manufactures Scott and Cottonelle, defended the use of flushable wipes and said in a recent statement, “The Consumer Report article does not identify which test method was used to rate the various tissue products, and the story also indicates that further tested needs to be undertaken. There are industry-standard flushability test methods, which have been peer reviewed and accepted by both tissue manufacturers and public works authorities. Kimberly-Clark has performed extensive testing of our flushable wipes products using these methods and all our flushable wipes products pass the relevant tests.”

A Charmin spokesperson also said Charmin Wipes have been tested and are flushable and compatible with functioning household drain lines and sewerage and septic systems.

So what’s your take? Are flushable wipes a better way to do your business, or is classic Toilet Paper a better choice?