Accidents Linked to Old Bidet Toilet Seats Warned

Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Japan's National Institute of Technology and Evaluation is calling for caution over old bidet toilet seats, which may be hazardous.

According to the government-affiliated organization, domestically made electric toilet seats with washing functions made their market debut in 1967, and their penetration topped 80 pct in 2016. Currently, almost all households in the country are believed to be using them.

A NITE survey showed that of 69 reported accidents involving such seats in the 10 years until last year, 54 cases, or 78 pct, occurred with 10-year-or-older products.

The survey also found that users got serious burns from overheated seats and bursting hot water in eight cases and that leaving mechanical problems unfixed resulted in smoke, fire and skin burns in 15 cases.

In specific cases, a bidet toilet seat caught fire in Tokyo in 2022 after three months of use with the washing nozzle stuck in the extended position and a seat at a store in Nagano Prefecture got burned in 2017 after being cleaned daily with highly acid detergent, which is suspected of causing corrosion inside the seat.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]