Tougher toilets planned for fatter Australians

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2006

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australians are getting so fat that toilet seats may have to be made stronger to bear their weight, the country's standards association said.

Standards Australia said it had begun looking into the problem and expected to recommend "an increase in the strength of toilet seats to accommodate the increasing size of humans".

The percentage of Australians who are overweight or obese has jumped around 10 percent in the past decade, to 62 percent of men and 45 percent of women, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced recently.

Toilet seats are currently required to meet a rigidity test of 45 kilograms (99 pounds), which supports most people's weight in a seated position, Standards Australia chairman Colin Blair told national radio.

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