衛生紙的介紹 -- by B 班 Brigitta－豐顏風語集 :親子「話」「畫」英文童書繪本

衛生紙

指的是一種極薄極軟的紙張，提供人們入廁後清理使用。形狀有單張四方型的，或者捲成滾筒形狀的。通常由木漿製造，跟一般紙的製造過程差不多，但是極薄極脆弱。脆弱使得衛生紙遇水就爛，以免在廁所內造成堵塞。製造目的跟外觀極其類似的面紙大不相同。如果把面紙誤當成衛生紙使用，很容易導致廁所堵塞。一般為白色，也有其他顏色。

歷史

在紙出現並便宜到可以用來拭穢之前，人們使用過的廁後清理材料包括水、布、葉子、玉米芯、土坷埌(土塊)、木竹片（廁籌）。李約瑟指出中國最早的用紙拭穢記載見於6世紀的《顏氏家訓》：

吾每讀聖人之書，未嘗不肅敬對之；其故紙有五經詞義，及賢達姓名，不敢穢用也。

9世紀中葉的阿拉伯商人蘇萊曼在唐代廣州也有記載：

中國人不講衛生，便後不用水洗，而是用中國造的紙擦。……無論印度人還是中國人，在潔淨時都不做大淨的：中國人解過大便後，只用紙擦一下。

《元史》列傳第三載元裕宗的妻子極為孝順公婆，侍奉婆婆昭睿順聖皇后（察必皇后）「不離左右，至溷廁所用紙，亦以面擦，令柔軟以進。」在《紅樓夢》41回，劉姥姥在大觀園突然覺得要拉肚子，於是「忙的拉著一個小丫頭，要了兩張紙就解衣」，說明清朝的平民用紙拭穢是常見的。但在民國初年，民生普遍貧困，仍有不少人用瓦片或玉米梗清除污穢，直到經濟恢復後才逐漸改回用紙。

在其他地方，有錢人用羊毛、蕾絲或破布擦拭；窮人家則是解便於河水中，再用手洗淨，或用像蘆葦、木屑、葉子、乾草、石頭、綠苔、水果皮、貝殼等就地取材。在古羅馬時期，普遍使用的是一根木棒上綁個海綿，使用後便將此工具置放於鹽水的木桶中。很多塔木德經研究資料顯示古猶太人適用小圓珠，通常是放在一個特別得袋子裡攜帶著，也有使用乾草，以及陶罐碎片平滑的邊緣。這些引用在the classic Biblical and Talmudic Medicine by the German physician Julius Preuss (Eng. trans. Sanhedrin Press, 1978).

Elsewhere, wealthy people wiped themselves with wool, lace or hemp, while less wealthy people used their hand when defecating into rivers, or cleaned themselves with various materials such as rags, wood shavings, leaves, grass, hay, stone, sand, moss, water, snow, maize, ferns, many apple plant husks, fruit skins, or seashells, and corncobs, depending upon the country and weather conditions or social customs. In Ancient Rome, a sponge on a stick was commonly used, and, after usage, placed back in a bucket of saltwater. Several talmudic sources indicating ancient Jewish practice refer to the use of small pebbles, often carried in a special bag, and also to the use of dry grass and of the smooth edges of broken pottery jugs (e.g., Shabbat 81a, 82a, Yevamot 59b). These are all cited in the classic Biblical and Talmudic Medicine by the German physician Julius Preuss (Eng. trans. Sanhedrin Press, 1978).

十六世紀法國諷刺作家 Francois Rabelais, 在小說中提到主角Gargantua調查很多解便後清理自身清潔地方式。Gargantuna去除使用紙張是沒有效率的想法。

The 16th century French satirical writer François Rabelais, in Chapter XIII of Book 1 of his novel-sequence Gargantua and Pantagruel, has his character Gargantua investigate a great number of ways of cleansing oneself after defecating. Gargantua dismisses the use of paper as ineffective, rhyming that: "Who his foul tail with paper wipes, Shall at his ballocks leave some chips." (Sir Thomas Urquhart's 1653 English translation). He concludes that "the neck of a goose, that is well downed" provides an optimum cleansing medium.

在印度，人們認為比較起使用衛生紙，使用水洗是比較乾淨衛生的方式。

In many parts of the world, especially where toilet paper or the necessary plumbing for disposal may be unavailable or unaffordable, toilet paper is not used. Also, in many parts of the world such as India, people consider using water a much cleaner and more sanitary practice than using paper.Cleansing is then performed with other methods or materials, such as water, for example using a bidet, a lota, rags, sand, leaves (including seaweed), corn cobs, animal furs, sticks or hands; afterwards, hands are washed with soap.

As a commodity

"Le Troubadour" (French) - 1960s package of toilet paper

在美國，Joseph Gayetty 普遍被認為將衛生紙商業化的發明人。 Gayetty衛生紙，首次於1857年問世，但直到1920年代才普遍。Gayetty醫療性用紙是平版式包裝，並水印有發明人的名字。本商品的原始廣告的標語是 “The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."

Joseph Gayetty is widely credited with being the inventor of modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States. Gayetty's paper, first introduced in 1857, was available as late as the 1920s. Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packages of flat sheets, watermarked with the inventor's name. Original advertisements for the product used the tagline "The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."

1883 年Albany 的 Seth Wheeler, 紐約，獲得衛生紙最早的專利權，該款式衛生紙在當地普遍被使用。

Seth Wheeler of Albany, New York, obtained the earliest United States patents for toilet paper and dispensers, the types of which eventually were in common usage in that country, in 1883.

1990年代，濕式衛生紙由英國Andrex首次上市，在2001年則由美國 Kimberly-Clark上市。相較於乾式衛生紙，這項產品可以在解便後，更達到乾淨的程度，且可於婦女生理期間使用。

Moist toilet paper was first introduced in the United Kingdom by Andrex in the 1990s, and in the United States by Kimberly-Clark in 2001 (in lieu of bidets which are rare in those countries.) It is designed to clean better than dry toilet paper after defecation, and may be useful for women during menstruation.

十九世紀，開始以木漿製紙。二十世紀初，美國史古脫紙業公司買下一大批紙，因紙面產生皺摺而無法使用。面對一倉庫的無用的紙，大家都不知如何是好，在主管會議中，有人建議將紙退回供應商以減少損失，這個建議獲得所有人的附議。該公司負責人亞瑟·史古脫（Arthur Scott）卻不這麼想，他想到在捲紙上打洞，變成容易撕下成一小張一小張的。史古脫將這種紙命名為「桑尼」衛生紙巾，賣給火車站、飯店、學校等放置於廁所中，因為相當好用而大受歡迎，並慢慢普及到一般家庭中，為公司創下了許多利潤。

Color and design

有顏色的衛生紙，有粉紅色、薰衣草紫、淺藍、淺綠、紫色、綠色和淺黃色 (因此可以選擇用來配合個人浴室的顏色)，在1960年代普遍銷售於美國。直到2004年Scoot仍生產原色、藍色和粉紅色的衛生紙。然而，公司已經停止生產有色的衛生紙。

Colored toilet paper in colors such as pink, lavender, light blue, light green, purple, green, and light yellow (so that one could choose a color of toilet paper that matched or complemented the color of one's bathroom) was commonly sold in the United States from the 1960s. Up until 2004, Scott was one of the last remaining U.S. manufacturers to still produce toilet paper in beige, blue, and pink. However, the company has since cut production of colored paper altogether.

而今日，在美國，沒有款式的有色衛生紙以被有造型衛生紙所取代，通常是白色，有浮雕裝飾的款式或根據品牌不同有不同的大小和顏色。有顏色的衛生紙，在歐洲的一些國家仍被普遍使用。

Today, in the United States, plain unpatterned colored toilet paper has been mostly replaced by patterned toilet paper, normally white, with embossed decorative patterns or designs in various colors and different sizes depending on the brand. Colored toilet paper remains commonly available in some European countries.

種類

平板（每包約300張）
抽取（每包約100～130抽）
捲筒（以重量公克，或總長度，或「節」做為規格的單位）

環保

由於衛生紙「用完即棄」的特性，過去有環保團體指出，不應浪費珍貴的木漿來造衛生紙，而應該轉用蘆葦或竹之類生長速度較快的植物，甚至應該循環使用報紙來製成衛生紙。1990年代中期，香港曾有一種標榜用再生報紙製成的紙巾，但由於報紙的油墨很難脫色，使紙巾的表面有不少黑點，加上紙質較差，使它在市場上的反應不好。

衛生紙特殊文化

用過的衛生紙進馬桶還是垃圾桶的爭議

全世界絕大部份地區的人如廁後用的廁紙跟面紙都是丟進馬桶。不過為了避免堵塞，在韓國、台灣和中國大陸不少地區都有不成文規定，會把用過的衛生紙丟在廁所旁的垃圾筒內，而在這些地方，不論男廁或女廁的廁所旁均放有垃圾筒。但是，如果在沒有定時清理垃圾筒的情況下，沾黏糞便的衛生紙，可能會使衛生環境惡化，成為病菌的散佈源頭。