Toilet paper article

I read this article on cnn.com today:
"Why toilet paper belongs to America"

A few highlights:
- Widespread use of toilet paper began in the USA! It mostly picked up after indoor plumbing systems were introduced (couldn't flush more bulky items down anymore...)
- The first products were medicated wipes invented in 1857 by a New York entrepreneur
- $6 billion is spent each year on toilet paper in the USA (though demand has largely flattened)
- Toilet paper revenues in Brazil have doubled since 2004
- "The spread of globalization can kind of be measured by the spread of Western bathroom practices."

It seems silly to be writing about toilet paper, but the last quote above was most interesting and I thought very true, after our experience in India.

Toilet paper was not the standard in India. Indians use water and their left hands (hence, you never eat with your left hand in India). However, toilet paper was widely sold and available, especially in touristy areas. ISB, for all its modern facilities, didn't provide us with toilet paper when we first arrived (many thanks to my friend Christine for gifting us with handy travel sized toilet paper and saving us the first night).

Of course I was not used to the Indian practice and found it strange and primitive. Though I've experienced non-toilet paper use in other countries as well (China, sometimes Taiwan, mostly less developed parts of Asia), India was another notch on the totem pole. Once I asked a fellow exchange student, Gretchen, who used to be a nurse, if sanitation problems in India lead to greater public health problems. While she was unfamiliar with statistics on the topic, she did say that adoption of more Western standards tended to have quick and dramatic positive results.