ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Comfort breaks at work may not be quite so comfortable with the introduction of a slanting toilet bowl.

The seat of the Standard Toilet slopes forwards at 13 degrees, causing users to brace their legs to avoid sliding off. This inevitably causes discomfort in the leg muscles after a few minutes, thereby shortening the toilet visit.

It's the brainchild of Mahabir Gill, who has worked as a consulting engineer for 40 years, and the design is intended to help employers reclaim workplace WC cubicles for their proper purpose after he saw that they all too often became "a private texting and social media usage space".

Gill and his colleagues in the UK estimate extended lavatory breaks cost British businesses about €4.7 billion a year.

According to their website: "Current toilet seats provide a horizontal seating surface. This enables a user to sit relatively comfortably . . . As a result, a user may spend longer than necessary sitting on the toilet without short-term discomfort. Sitting on a toilet for longer than is necessary is generally undesirable."

The design is also intended to reduce queues in locations such as shopping centres and railway stations, where Gill says it could have health benefits by reducing problems such as the weakening of pelvic muscles associated with use of traditional facilities.