Oddley wrote:Welcome to the forum Bad Flynch.
When I tried my local chemist I asked for mineral oil, he said he did not stock it.
Perhaps you could be more specific. What is the name of the mineral oils that could be used.
Sorry about that. Years ago there were several brands of this on the market, but nowadays there are so many firms marketing it that it is simply sold as Mineral Oil. It is a paraffin based oil, the same as oil for gasoline engine lubrication, but would have no addititves of any kind. It may be called paraffin oil over there. The British equivalent of USP and NF is probably BP. The heavy grade is used as an oil-type laxative when used in relaively large quantities. One of the older trade names was Nujol. The following link http://www.chemistrystore.com/mineral_oil.htm gives many synonyms, but I recognize that some are not entirely correct. It is a clear, pure, odorless, tasteless, and nontoxic form of petroleum oil. It is nontoxic unless it is inhaled, I might add. I hope that helps. I am confined to a chair with a broken ankle right now and cannot get to my books that might contain a correct answer, or I would go and look. Maybe a further web search might be in order.