To not understand how you can be so ignorant and unaware of the world around you that you still flush wet wipes and tampons down the toilet?

[A580Hojas]

How is it even possible in the information age?

I reckon a huge number of people know they shouldn't do it but flush anyway in the hope they will get away with it and they won't be the one having to dig out any resulting blockage.

Much like the hundreds of thousands of cunts who chuck their litter out of car windows - out of sight out of mind.

Gets me down, it does.

Tried a mooncup hated it too much hassle and always felt l was going to leak and I only have two days of heavy flow and it’s not really that heavy

I didn’t know until recently about not flushing tampons and it’s not obvious on the box it should be in much bigger writing. It’s not that long ago applicator and tampons were sold on tv adverts as flushable

I do hope the op takes into consideration the impact of everything she does on the environment and not just when it suits like so many who love to preach to others

@Laiste

I asked my GP about the period shits. She said it was because at TOTM your body releases a hormone that makes your uterus/womb contract so the blood comes out. But that sometimes the hormone is a bit misdirected and doesn’t quite end up in the right place. So it makes your intenstines cramp too, meaning that what’s inside them is expelled before it’s (ahem) solidified.

What snash 12 said: "To the people who say they had no idea you shouldnt flush tampons, what about the signs / stickers inside public toilets, shopping centre toilets, restaurant toilets everywhere that says "please do not flush sanitation products down the toilet"."
And if you read it on so many, many toilet doors, why would you assume it was only for "that specific toilet"?
Also there have been articles in the newspapers and magazines. This is not a new thing. When they found that huge fatberg in the London sewer last year, they even mentioned it on the telly. So don't go saying "how would we know?" Before you had mobile phones you had nothing to do while sitting in a public toilet but reading the polite sign on the door. "I have only read it hundreds of tiiiiimes, so how would I knooooow?". Oh, please.

@Laiste hope this isn’t too weird but I noticed you mentioned Lilets being harder to source. Tesco do them as do larger boots. I have also had them delivered from Amazon Pantry. I tend to buy in bulk when I find them as they’re the only ones that work for me.

Oh for goodness sake......LOTS OF PEOPLE DONT KNOW. I expect there are lots of things you don't know too - it's a fact that everyone doesn't have access to the same information or even if they do, that it isn't understood or processed in the same way to result in the same understanding. Why can't you see this? It is so obvious.

Yes, people have seen signs in public toilets saying don't flush sanitary products. So you take that to mean that ALL sanitary products should not be flushed in ANY toilet. That's one understanding. Another quite usual one is that this is a public ladies toilet being flushed many many times in a day - far more than a home toilet. It can't cope with sanitary products because so many women and their sanitary products pass through tht toilet every single day. It particularly or only means sanitary towels, which most people understand block toilets and is simply reminding people not to flush those.

People may see the sign in the toilet and think 'yes that's obvious, I would never do that' meaning 'Inwould never flush a sanitary towel anywhere. They might still think it's okay to flush a tampon in that toilet and all others. They might think they shouldn't flush a tampon there because as a very used toilet it is susceptible to blockages, so they don't flush there, but would in domestic, much less heavily used toilets.

Thought processes are nuanced. It has taken over 50 years of campaigning against smoking for there to be a significant drop in smoking and that is with a massive, concerted campaign.

When people on here say they didn't know tampons shouldn't be flushed down domestic toilets - they actually mean they didn't know....not they knew and ignored it. MUCH more information is required before it can be said that everyone who flushes tampons is irresponsible - it will take years.

user1497357411

No idea what you get up to for all that time in public loos but I personally am often accompanied by a small child and rarely have the time or the inclination to read any notices on the backs of doors etc.
I’m focussed on the matter in hand...get small child to have a wee, then have a wee myself and get the hell out of there.
Don’t even use my mobile phone while I’m on a public loo either! At home that’s different of course .

You my dear may have read the notice hundreds of tiiiiimes, don’t assume that the rest of us have nothing else to occupy us while in there.

Oh and I never knew about the London fatberg either...but then I don’t live near London and dont watch much tv either so I guess that passed me by

Until I read this thread I had no idea you were not meant to flush tampons down the loo!

Yes I get it with wipes and make sure those go in the bin

Seriously, people, some reactions are like they've come from the Land of Ignoramia.
No nappies, tampons and wet wipes down the toilet. Jaysus, a stray dog knows it and it's common sense too.
And don't get me started on morons flushing down oil from frying. What's wrong with having a little jar ready that you pour the used oil into and then dump if you can't recycle it.

That old disbelieving what other people say arrogant twattery.

... lots of posters saying they didn't know and lots of people say the same on every single one of these threads.

'Oh of course you knew'

Yeah, people generally make up fucking lies about this kind of thing for a laugh...and you know so much better about what someone has knowledge of than themselves.

Twats.

I nearly came to blows with a friend over this. She said that the wet wipes they used were flushable and I showed her the photo of the fat berg with so-called flushable wipes in it. For a clever person, she was pretty clueless about this.
I haven’t flushed tampons for years.

Clandestino. You do know moron is an offensive disablist word?

If you don't then YOU'RE very ignorant. If you do know, then urgh...

Given that so many people don't know, I wonder if - maybe - the message isn't getting through.

I wonder if -maybe- making the writing on the box more obvious would help?

Or a Facebook campaign?

Or a basic poster on the back of public loo doors saying

Remember PPP not TT
Flush poo, pee and paper.
Don't flush Towels and Tampons.

Save our Systems! Home and Away!

@sofabitch, they do NOT just fall out. I've had ones completely soaked and leaking and they've never fallen out. Sounds like a pelvic floor problem to me.

@YoloSwaggins they do not just fall out FOR YOU

Fixed that

Of course they don't fall out. We're just completely ignorant of our bodies or imagined it. Despite having used tampons quite successfully for years, used a diaphragm and having had babies, we just don't understand our fannies at all.

Won't somebody think of the plumbers?
All those out of work sanitary engineers and their starving children! Your blockages put their food on the table!
This despicable campaign to put them out of work must be stopped!

This thread has become very funny now.

I don't remember reading before when hundreds of people said they didn't know something and a couple of people repeatedly said that of course they knew.

I bet I'm doing lots of things that are unhealthy and ungreen in total ignorance. Perhaps immdoing things that are dangerous as well that other people are aware are dangerous. Perhaps immdoing things that are financially wise that the people who have never flushed a tampon aren't doing, because .........they didn't know these were wise financial choices.

The person who is always right and says everybody else is not only wrong, but lying about their reasons for it, strikes me as probably not the person who is going to actually make a difference in the world and improve the situation.

Laiste I have the same problem - I can't get them in easily and often the size isn't big enough for the flow. Pelvic floor hasn't got anything to do with it - if anything it's the opposite (too tight)

Lynette, they have them in Boots. Mine are little purple things

@FlickingVees - . Totally unaware of this.

Just googled it and milk is the worst in the BOD table here www.ecifm.rdg.ac.uk/bod.htm. But assume this is referring to large quantities from dairy farms. However if most households are pouring off milk down the sink it would add up. I'll stick to using it as plant fertiliser.

@DianaPrincessOfThemyscira. Yes I can live with DH not talking to me for a week.

@Madonnasmum I didn't know til I came on mumsnet. Where does it say?

I no longer have periods, but for all the years I did since I started as a teenager, I never knew any different. Madonnasmum is right - where is the rule book for all this?

It's all a bit self-righteous to claim this has been "the way" since the year dot, because it's really only a recent phenomenon (aided by the growth in wipes market). Same with picking up dog shit and a gazillion other things that we now do differently.

I nearly came to blows with a friend over this. She said that the wet wipes they used were flushable and I showed her the photo of the fat berg with so-called flushable wipes in it. For a clever person, she was pretty clueless about this.

I thought they were the non flushable wipes that people were flushing

Hence the entire reason why the flushable ones were marketed - because these were ones specifically designed to be flushable

That's what the packaging says!!

Normal wet wipes can't be flushed. That's what I assumed was making up the fatberg

It's not unreasonable to think that the ones that say they're flushable on the packet would be flushable!!

Did they pull the wipes out of the fatberg and test them? I assumed they were non flushable too.

I wouldn't flush wipes but there is no way I would not flush tampons if I still needed them. Putting them in a bathroom bin is gross not to mention putting them in a nappy sack is worse I think.