The roll of FORO in pandemic panic

The logical response to the hoarding of toilet paper induced by the Covid-19-triggered fear of running out (Foro) should have been an awareness of bidets or, better still, the handheld jet sprays that are now standard equipment in many homes and establishments in India and a few other nations. Instead, a slew of online toilet roll calculators have appeared over the past fortnight, to let anxious pack rats know how long their stash will last. The tool developed by two Londoners, for instance, has been used by over two million people and revealed that the average hoarder has squirrelled away more than 500% extra toilet paper than would be needed for a two-week lockdown. Besides showing utter disregard for the environment, toilet roll users also clearly have no idea of how much they need in a year — around 100 rolls, or half a tree’s worth, per person — let alone a mere few weeks, leading to a Foro epidemic.

While Italy is the worst-hit by the 2020 pandemic, toilet paper — or lack of it — has not been an issue there because of a particular building by-law: from July 1975, it was made mandatory for every house in that country to have at least one bidet. Policymakers across the world should consider similar legislation, not only as an anti-panic measure to combat future Foro outbreaks but also as a sustainability initiative.