Toilet Seats Can Be Health and Safety Nightmare

Toilet seats may seem innocuous, but using a faulty toilet seat can result in injury.

Toilet seats are not associated with death and injury. Although perhaps one of the most famous deaths was chronicled to have happened on a toilet seat – when Elvis Presley died. Although Presley's death was clearly not the fault of the toilet seat, some bizarre stories reveal that there are indeed injuries, even deaths, that have resulted from toilet seats.

Raised Toilet Seats Raise Concerns

A story in the Daily Mail detailed how raised toilet seats became a health and safety nightmare after six people were injured and one died using the faulty toilet seats. Almost a hundred faulty Homecraft Rolyan Savanah toilet seats were reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. These toilet seats are not designed like normal toilet seats, but are raised by two or four inches. The raised toilets seats however caused injury as the faulty seats meant that the rubber pad attached to the brackets that secured the seat to the toilet came away. As a result, users of the toilet seats fell off the toilet as the toilet seat slipped. Opting for regular toilet seats is clearly a lot safer and straightforward. Reports suggested six people were injured with bumps, bruising and back injuries – and one woman even died as a result of falling off the faulty toilet seat.

Faulty Toilet Seats

Letters warning customers who had bought the particular faulty toilet seats were sent from the manufacturers. The company offered replacement toilet seats free of charge if they discovered their toilet seat was one of those with a faulty pad.

Personal Responsibility or Public Liability?

But it isn't just faulty toilet seats that can pose a risk. Using inappropriate toilets seats can cause injury – the story of a teacher who fell off a toilet seat in a primary school illustrates this. The teacher actually painfully dislocated her hip – the toilet seats were designed to cater to children under 11. The case caused controversy as the teacher received £14,000 in compensation from the school. Critics said that individuals should take personal responsibility for their own welfare, and that the teacher should have had the common sense not to use the toilet seats clearly not designed for adult use. The teacher's claim was backed by the National Union of Teachers.

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