To hold it in or let rip?

It really is one of those etiquette questions that has peopletied in knots. If you are in an enclosed place, like a plane, and you need to fart do you hold it in or let go?

Obviously more than etiquettists ( made that word up) have pondered this. There was a multi country study undertaken and reported in the NZ Medical Journal yesterday. Gastroenterologists found that:

• • Since smoking has been banned on flights there has been an increase in people smelling farts on planes

  • Men and women fart at about the same rate

  • Women smell worse than men

  • Holding it in is bad for your health

  • Seats retain the odour for some time

Some of their suggestions for changing this include testing passengers for methane in their breath and putting those with high methane closer to the toilets, giving passengers nappies, adding charcoal to the seats or changing the food to reduce the fibre.