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(Sydney) Sturdier toilets may be on their way in Australia to cope with the country's increasingly obese population.

Standards Australia, a nongovernment group that establishes safety and design standards, is considering recommending strengthening toilets for larger users, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Obesity levels have been rising for years in Australia.

Standards Australia spokeswoman Kate Evans said the current industry standard for toilet seats is just 45 kilograms and that the group is looking to increase it to 150 kilograms.

Experts will examine the seats "from the perspective that people are getting bigger," Evans said.

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Stop the presses! Australians are grossly obese - they weigh more than a hundred pounds! Oh, what is this world coming to?

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Originally posted by Michelle:

Isn't 45 kilograms something like a hundred pounds?

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Standards Australia spokeswoman Kate Evans said the current industry standard for toilet seats is just 45 kilograms and that the group is looking to increase it to 150 kilograms.

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I mean, the fact that one's entire body is not directly over the seat, not bearing down directly, must affect the weight. And then, with feet on floor, you've got both extension and another point of contact ...

Because I am very short-sighted, in order to read the scale precisely when I am seated I have to lean forward, perhaps putting my elbows on my knees. If I lean 'way forward, I have shifted up to 45 per cent of my weight on to the scale!

If I sit back and squint, I think the scale is registering about half that. So something approaching a quarter of one's weight is not actually bearing down on the toilet seat.

[ 07 March 2006: Message edited by: Pogo ]

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:

45 kg = 99.21 lbs. ; 150 kg = 330.7 lbs.

So yeah, I'd say it's a problem...

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I don't know about that. They're not saying that the average Aussie is 330 lbs. They're saying that the industry standard for toilets should be 330 lbs. That's very different.

It's ridiculous for the industry standard to only take into account the very bottom end (ha, no pun intended) of the weight range, and I think most people would agree that a hundred pounds is about as low as you're going to get for adult weights.

It also wouldn't make sense to only make the toilets strong enough to hold the AVERAGE person's weight, since there are going to be lots of people not only below average but above average.

What DOES make sense is to make toilets strong enough to hold the upper end of the weight range. That way if your 330 lb Uncle Fred comes over to visit, your toilet will hold him as well it it holds the rest of your family's skinny little 130 lb asses.

Seriously, I think this is a tempest in a teapot. Oh no, we have to start making toilets hold more than a hundred pounds, that means everyone's getting fat! No, it means their toilets were probably inadequate for the average person even before, and now they're making it so even the largest in a certain weight range can use them. I very highly doubt that everywhere you turn in Australia, you see nothing but 300 lb. men and women.

[ 07 March 2006: Message edited by: Michelle ]

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Originally posted by Nanuq:
Somehow I'm reminded of the old joke about the woman who lost 200 pounds of unsightly fat by divorcing him.

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But the toilet situation's different. We, after all, are exerting considerable force downwards most of the time we're on the thing, not to mention losing mass with it.

Whereas Down Under,
The women blow
And the men chunder