title: It is worth 10 million working hours a year to have your toilet paper folded?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  From our experience the toilet paper is folded in the bathrooms in rooms in branded hotels. We aimed to study the total time yearly spent in the world on folding hotel toilet paper.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three investigators clocked 60 folding toilet paper events and calculated the mean time. The mean folding time was 5.73 s (interquartile range 4.50-6.56). Using the calculated extra time it takes to fold the toilet paper and the number of hotel nights spent we estimated the total time spent in the world each year to fold the toilet paper. For sensitivity analyses we used different assumptions on number of hotel beds, occupancy rate and folding time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Assuming an extra 10 s spent on folding toilet paper, approximately 10 million hours are globally spent on folding toilet paper every year. This corresponds to more than 5000 man-years of work. In a hotel with yearly full coverage of 200 beds skipping folding the toilet paper corresponds to around 200 h of time that could be spent elsewhere.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To take away unnecessary duties from hotel room cleaners would increase their health and well-being and save time that could be better spent. Is it really defendable and appropriate that someone else has spent time on folding the toilet paper you are just about to use?
authors.affiliation: Unit of Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels Väg 13, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Rickard
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0654-4530
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ljung
authors.affiliation: Stocksundsskolan, SE-182 73 Stocksund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Hedvig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ljung
authors.affiliation: Stocksundsskolan, SE-182 73 Stocksund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ljung
keywords: Cleaning staff; Inequalities; Occupational health; Psychosocial health; Socioeconomic position; Toilet paper; Working conditions