My large dog who ate a tampon and died a horrible death can’t speak for himself, so I will. This is a really bad idea. Your internal pipes are not any better equipped to handle this than your house’s (or anywhere else’s) plumbing, and vice versa. Tampons expand, they get stuck, they block other stuff from getting by. As was noted upthread, young girls have been taught to not flush for decades now - I am a late 40s GUY and I knew that since I was a teen.
I’m at least 86% sure she wasn’t actually going to eat her tampons.
She was recommending someone else eat them?
I am just suggesting that if they are available to be eaten, sometimes they do in fact get eaten. My small town vet said our case was not uncommon, he sees it about once a month. That was of no consolation to me, but interesting to know none-the-less. Tampons do in fact get eaten when placed out. Be very very careful if you place them out and have pets is all I am saying. But do place them out for your plumbing’s sake!
If the product doesn’t pull apart immediately in water like toilet paper then it is not biodegradable for purposes of moving through a sewer drain. This doesn’t require research. It’s common sense. And to answer your question, I expect all adults to have common sense. Don’t smoke cigarettes because they’re bad for you is common sense. It shouldn’t take a warning on the side of the box to explain the obvious. Adults should know not to flush paper towels down the toilet. Adults should be able to make the connection between the fibers in a paper towel and the fibers in a tampon.
If you’ve read this thread and still don’t understand the mechanics behind backed up drains then it’s pointless to continue arguing real world experience (complete with pictures) and multiple municipal cites against the irrefutable marketing words on the side of a box.
Do I really start having to put joke disclaimers on everything I say?
Thank you for the condescending assumption that as a middle-aged man you know more about what women are taught about tampons than I do, a late-20s woman.
This is sarcasm. I am not actually thanking you. I, in fact, mean the opposite.
Multiple municiple cites? Which ones were those? Mine, where someone from the sewer system OF *MY CITY *told me *personally *that it *wasn’t *a problem, or yours, which was about septic **TANKS **and therefore 100% irrelevant?
Listen, little lady: he’s older and more penile than you- of course he knows more about your body than you do, silly goose! Aren’t you glad he came in here and saved you from your silly, feminine ideals about eating tampons? Think what you could have done to yourself!
Now, I’m not entirely mean: it is a good reminder that anyone with animals probably shouldn’t leave blood covered (ie: to a dog- fucking delicious) stuff around for them to gnaw on and potentially swallow whole. But ultimately, that does little for the discussion about flushing tampons (except to say maybe we should, so our dogs don’t get into the trash and OD on Tampax).
Well, as far as this thread goes, at the very beginning I thought everything you were saying was a joke, but eventually you convinced me otherwise.
If you want to switch modes again, especially in a thread like this, with a position like yours, maybe you should indeed make a note of it. 
Well, it wasn’t condescending, it was echoing what others upthread have been saying they had been taught. Apparently the lessons haven’t reached everyone. And I guess I have been hanging out with menstruating girls and women since before you were born, so maybe that counts for something
Well, maybe when you have time, you can share how it came to be that you can tell the difference between sarcasm but not be able to properly identify condescension
The Ed Norton of your city knows the status of your plumbing right up to yours and every toilet in town? Or is it that maybe they just don’t mind doing the repairs on the City stuff, and stuff in or near the buildings is not really their problem anyway?
Hey, don’t you live in Bakersfield where the beloved doctors die by crawling into chimneys from the roof? Maybe the information that people get in Bakersfield about their care and use of private parts is not entirely up to snuff.
Because it’s fucking Bakersfield!
In my case, I never for one second thought the tampon the dog ate should have been flushed, because it shouldn’t have been, and my house and entire development are less than 7 years old.
In fact, this thread has given me reason to wonder if this house MIGHT be safe to flush in. But then I realize if it turns out to not be true, it will be me that has to deal with it.
It should have been wrapped and carefully disposed of as described many times upthread.
What maybe hasn’t been emphasized enough though is that the tampons will continue to expand in the pipes even after use. Depending on the conditions of the pipes, which you can’t know in advance, you take a risk.
Now, you may not be the one to suffer when the risk goes bad, and so this strikes me as a tragedy of the commons situation more than anything.
But make no mistake - when you flush, you are taking a risk, and imposing the potential cost on someone even if not you, and just because it worked every time before does not mean it will work this time or next.
If you sleep OK knowing all that, and each of you DOES know it, then that says something, but this being IMHO, where I don’t hang out much, I am not sure how much I can say what it does say.
Look guys, I know you actually are engineers, but I hang out with a lot of engineers and my dad’s an engineer so I’ve basically been around engineers since before I was even out of the womb. That’s why my opinion on engineering is of equal weight as actual engineers.
See? Silly. Lots of women have come forth for both sides of this debate, but been shut down by men who know better because they . . . have met women. Or we’re told that there isn’t a bathroom in the entire world without a trashcan. . . but then several women pop forward to the point that you probably would think that, until you regularly need a trash can. Doesn’t matter, though. What do us broads know anyway, amirite?
lulz, you’re witty. But see, that shit of course doesn’t just happen here in good ol’ Bakersfield, as you are surely aware. But secondly, I would never defend that fucking moron- she got drunk and because she’s some psycho bitch, tried to crawl into her boyfriend’s house via the dumbest way possible. She was crazy. Not all of us are, but I do appreciate the suggestion that us yokels over here don’t know much about our vaginas. Or. . . I’m not really sure what your point is if it wasn’t that. Hyuk hyuk hyuk- lemme go get my banjo while we figure out what you were talking about.:rolleyes: Wait, why are we even discussing this? We ain’t got none o that fancy plumbin’ here in Bakersfield- my outhouse is just fine with tampons! Uncle Billy Bob comes and cleans it out for us :).
Yeah, I can’t say my hoot plugs keep me up at night, tossing and turning, concerned about their dire consequences. I’m sorry if my vagina and what I plug in it keeps you from blissful sleep, though.
It is amply clear you are not an engineer, not only becaus eyou seem incapable of grasping how plumbing works, but because your logic is increasingly faulty on anything.
Care to explain how the women I have spent as much time with as you have been menstruating have managed to keep from flushing for decades if it is impossible to do?
You know, just because you haven’t been killed in a car crash so far doesn’t mean it won’t happen tomorrow. There is an element of luck involved, no matter how careful you are.
Same here. Maybe you haven’t caused a backup or worse, (but how do you really know?) but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.
Like I said, you willingness to be on the selfish side of a Tragedy of the Commons situation is clear. Own it, it’s OK!
I’m not really sure why this has to turn into a gender issue. I’m not really seeing why women are feeling so hostile towards men requesting them to not flush tampons. Maybe it’s because it never occurred to me to ever flush them, but I just don’t see why it’s anything to be upset about.
Haha. Why do people puff up so big and defensive when they think someone disagrees with them? I am genuinely asking questions to gain insight about the situation. I really only wanted clarification. I will be completely frank…I kinda trust a lot of what is on my packaging. If a soda says it is ‘the best ever’ I will go ahead and ignore that, but if it says it’s 170 calories, I believe it.
If the the bathroom cleaner says “safe for all surfaces” or something, I go ahead and use it on all the surfaces. I have no idea if that is just a marketing. I guess I’m just an idiot until the internet enlightens me with their dueling cites and pretty pictures.
Yet her office people said in the news that she had thousands of satisfied patients. Many soke directly as to what great care she took of them. So thousands of Bakersfieldsians are learning about their internals (she was an internist) from someone like that.
And the whole place is a haven for misinformation about the way people use their private parts in the privacy of their own homes.
Maybe not you. Probably not you.
My point is that anything someone tells you medical in Bakersfield, even if they are confirming something you heard elswhere, you ought be very very skeptical of, whether from a doctor or not. People in that (this!) area have not shown themselves to have your best overall interests at heart when it comes to your reproductive organs. Even some doctors.
I’m sorry, did I not say in this thread and the other that I’ve taken into consideration the points that have been made and have rethought the whole flushing thing? But you’re right, my logic is increasingly faulty- looking at what others have presented, evidence and such, reading it for myself, and admitting that it may be in everybody’s best interest if I adjust my actions. What kind of stubborn bitch am I?
And Freudian Slit, I’m not angry about someone suggesting I don’t flush my tampons (see above), I’m angry that some ignorant fool wants to step up and insult my intelligence because I’m not from whatever surely metropolitan paradise he hails from, but then that the same man wants to condescend me because. . . he seriously thought someone was suggesting you eat tampons. Seriously.
Good point! She was a doctor who people went to, so that must mean all Bakersfieldians are 100% pro breaking into your boyfriend’s house drunkenly via chimney. Sure. that makes sense.
“And the whole place is a haven for misinformation about the way people use their private parts”-- excuse me? What do you mean by that? Explain real slow, 'cuz being country and all, I can’t read real good. Also, are you legitimately suggesting that patients in the metropolitan Bakersfield area shouldn’t trust their doctor’s advice, because said doctor is clearly either crazy, some yokel, or a religious nut? And I’m the ignorant one?
Just so you know, if you count the outlying areas around here, there are about a million of us. It’s a little silly for you to pretend this is some hill town where most of the city went to doctor Santa over there.
Post 138, Santa Barbara, CA
Post 141, Dayton, OH
Post 147, King County WA
My additional post was indeed aimed at septic tanks.
Randomly searching I’ve added:
Long Hill Township, NJ
Lower Saucon Authority, PA
You’ve posted nothing in the way of evidence that tampons do not pose a clogging hazard in homes and connecting sewers. Per your own phone call the person would not vouch for homes and connecting lines.
If tampons don’t dissolve while using them then they aren’t going to dissolve in the 20 second trip through your house.
Fuck you guys, how did this thread turn into eating tampons? And some guy actually legitimately answered it, just in case SFG was currently stuffing her face with her used tampon? I am glad the office is empty because I can’t stifle my laughter.
Where I come from, out in the hill country, when we don’t have enough from the harvest, we sometimes have to feed our children a boot/tampon stew, so as they can live on to reproduce themselves via storks, because that’s how it works (I’m from Bakersfield and that’s what everyone believes here- we don’t know anything about reproductive health). Anyway, tampon stew is full of iron, so it’s actually a pretty good way to survive the long winters.
How about mine?
Here’s one example of a sewer utility that prohibits the flushing of tampons:
Here’s another, which helpfully adds some reasons why you shouldn’t dispose of trash in toilets and sinks:
[quote]
Your toilet and sewer system are only designed to dispose of human wastes and toilet paper (which quickly breaks down). Unfortunately, people use the toilet as a wastebasket out of convenience. It is a huge “out of sight, out of mind” problem because people often don’t see the mess sewer overflows cause and the problems that sewer workers need to deal with!
Almost any type of rubbish may restrict sewage flow, clog sewers, and cause sewage overflows. Keep the following from going down your toilet and sinks:[ul]
[li]Paper (paper towels, facial tissue (Kleenex), paper napkins, wrappers, etc.). Only toilet tissue is okay! [/li][li]Plastics (bags, wrappers, bottles, cotton-tip shafts), [/li][li]Rubber (gloves, condoms, underclothes elastic, etc.), [/li][li]Cloth and fibers (cotton balls, tampons, cigarette filters, stockings, rags, etc.). [/li][li]Food scraps (greasy items are the worst but minimize throwing down non-greasy items too. Try to even keep out smaller food items such as tea-leaves, coffee grounds or eggshells. Garbage grinders help but its even better not to use it where possible – compost what you can and throw the rest in the trash. Place food scraps in tightly sealed bags or other containers so it does not become an odor or rodent problem.) [/li][li]Toys, cans, sticks, pebbles and sand, and pretty much all other solids except for human wastes and toilet tissue.[/ul]Why is it a problem? Rubbish and other objects often combine with hair, grease and other debris to cause clogging of the sewer system. Even something as small as a cotton tip swab with other attached debris can cause a blockage in sewer pipes. Rags and stringy material can clog sewage pumps. Malfunctioning sewage pumps, like clogged pipes, prevent sewage from flowing through the system and are a cause of spills. Any rubbish-type items that you dump in toilets and sinks at home, work, schools, shopping centers, movie theaters, or parks can contribute to sewage spills.[/li]
Do your share to keep rubbish from clogging our sewers by following these simple Do’s and Don’ts:
DO’s:[ul][li]Place and use a wastebasket in the bathroom to dispose of rubbish (including disposable diapers and personal hygiene products). [/li][li]Use sink and shower drain strainers. [/li][li]Scrape food scraps into sealed containers or bags and throw them out in the garbage. [/li][li]Educate each other on minimizing disposal of rubbish to our sewers. [/ul][/li]DON’Ts:[ul]
[li]Don’t use the sewer as a convenient means to dispose of food scraps. [/li][li]Don’t use the toilet as a wastebasket!![/ul][/li][/quote]
For what it’s worth, I looked up the actual regulations for your own Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. They have a pretty standard set of formal discharge prohibitions, including a catch-all:
I am surprised that someone would actually tell you that tampons are “not an issue.” Of course, he also added that they might be an issue with the “local systems,” and in the laterals. Maybe he figures that it’s far more likely to cause a problem with your lateral than his system. Maybe the municipal system doesn’t have any pumps or no small pumps. Heck, maybe repairing the pumps are job security for him. 
Maybe he’s close to retirement and really doesn’t give a shit. Maybe he’s just resigned to the fact that some people are going to flush whatever they want down the toilet regardless of what he or anyone else tells him.
In any event, I find it interesting that Milwaukee, like many older cities, apparently still has combined sewer overflows, in which, during heavy storm events, the combined sewers (composed of both sewage and stormwater) overflow untreated into local waterways, including Lake Michigan. The last overflow was just last month.
Read that again: 506 million gallons of untreated wastewater into local rivers and Lake Michigan. Wastewater possibly containing your used tampon. :rolleyes: So this is yet another reason not to use your toilet as a trash receptacle. While human waste will decompose in the environment fairly quickly (though it certainly degrades water quality and can contribute to the spread of disease), the trash, including your tampon, generally will not.
You did.
The kind who, despite having reconsidered way up thread, piles on when someone dishes snark because I am a guy, so what could I know.
It was probably fun for you to do that, but really, since you asked, maybe that is evidence of what kind of a bitch you are.
There are worse kinds to be, but still, you asked.
That you are so far off base there, patting yourself on the back while misreading and maybe deliberately misrepresenting what I said does in fact say something about the relationship between you and the most visible folks where you live. It’s kind of inline for them to make such nonsensical arguments. In fact there is an op-ed in the paper today lamenting the poorly argued letters to the editor the paper is being besieged with.
You can do better. Just don’t pile on and expect to not be called on it.
I can refer you to an English teacher in Bakersfield who can help you with your reading comprehension if you’d like.
err…does the name Ken Mettler or Roy Ashburn or any of the comments made about homosexuals by leaders and regular folks alike, or demonstrated by the propensity of people to speak to their ignorance and actually vote what they say ring any bells?
This has been in the local news regularly for at least 2 years now.
Was it clear this doctor was crazy, a yokel, or a religious nut before she turned up in the news? Probably not.
Just as I thought, having never heard otherwise since I was old enough to know what a tampon is, that they shouldn’t be flushed, I also thought it was common knowledge that people should always get a second opinion on medical issues beyond the most trivial, or accept that they are taking a risk.
Maybe that is another thread though.
LOL there are a million people surrounding Bakersfield?
Maybe if you include all of Kern, and parts of Tulare County there are a million people. But three are probably entire states that are a smaller area than that.
Again, I repeat my offer for a local tutor. I said this doctor had thousands of patients. If you want to amuse us with how you got from that to “Most people in Bakersfield were patients of that doctor”, have at it
But if you really want to argue Bakersfield has the best, most infallible collection of doctors anywhere, and it is not a struggle to attract them compared to other places, have at it.
However, there is little doubt that as a whole, Bakersfield has among the least informed people in the state, maybe the world, about sexuality. Hey I am close enough that where I live is no different in that regard. But the point is, people are demonstrably squicky about topics related to their private parts, and they demonstrably get it wrong, so maybe if you heard “OK to flush”, in Bakersfield, it might be worth double checking the reasoning Maybe that person’s brother is a plumber and doesn’t mind the call when something backs up