Listen—I don’t think women get to “complain” about periods enough. Still, with how far women’s rights have come, surely we reserve the right to openly discuss what we experience every month more frequently. On top of being slammed with waves of demotivation, fatigue, and depression, we also have the pleasure of cramps that often leave us in fetal positions on the ground. To complete the package and wrap it up in a neat little wad of toilet paper, we also lose handfuls of blood by the hour. And yet we sit quietly in class and make due. We keep quiet and sneak away to the bathroom when we can, pray we don’t leak through our jeans and spend fortunes on products we can’t even trust.
The average woman spends around $2,000 on tampons, $45,000 on pads, and another $2,000 on ruined underwear during their 40-year span of menstruation, according to the Boston Medical Care Center. Depending on how heavy someone’s flow is, each cycle has a rough estimate of $20 worth of products used. According to the Wall Street Journal, female hygiene products are rising in cost, furthering the gendered equity gap in society, but they also could potentially contain toxic earth metals. A recent study from UC Berkeley confirming the harmful contents of tampons left women and teens with a question— how can we avoid exposing ourselves to lead?
Lead, a highly toxic element, is quite talented. The Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) states that lead possesses the capacity to mimic the actions of calcium and can interact with proteins when entering the bloodstream, almost as if it has shapeshifting abilities. This causes multiple dangerous health risks and can affect every organ system in the body. However, lead is just the headliner and the opening acts are equally as startling. A UC Berkeley experiment conducted on tampons and their contaminants found that arsenic, cadmium, and mercury, to name a few, varied in concentrations depending on the brand of tampons and organic vs. non-organic. 30 tampons from over 14 brands were tested. All of them contained these earth metals, which means pinpointing a specific company or brand won’t get us to the root of the problem.
Medical News Today found that due to tampons’ makeup of fabrics made from natural fiber cotton and/or rayon [man-made fabric from cellulose fibers], environmental changes in soil balance can cause tampon companies some issues. Corrie Pelc from Medical News Today states, “The contamination of soil within the agricultural industry by toxic metals – such as mercury, lead and cadmium – is currently a large issue. These heavy metals can then leach into the plants growing within its soil.” Environmental contamination of these cotton plants then gets carried over into the manufacturing process of cotton tampons. Though the UC Berkeley study has been inconclusive in what the effects on menstruating women are, we do know that lead exposure, or exposure to any 16 of the elements found in the tampon study in any concentration for that matter, is harmful. Chronic diseases, infertility, dementia, cancer and diabetes are some of the major byproducts according to the CDC.
What I find most amusing about this whole debacle is one news article detailing the recent study. The subhead reads; “Don’t panic: Scientists are unsure whether the findings indicate health risks.” “Don’t panic”? If you tell any woman not to panic, you’ll find yourself in a state of danger. The reason I’m panicking isn’t due to the lead’s presence, I’m more preoccupied with the fact that big tampon companies haven’t developed a system to test for this since the tampon’s big debut in 1931. Menstrual cycles in general are something the public tends to be uncomfortable discussing, to the point where women’s safety hasn’t been considered in the long run. It is appalling that it took 9 decades to discover that lead has been in contact with women’s most sensitive area of the body.
So what exactly does this mean for women with reproductive systems? Though tampons are not the “ride or die” of period products, the other options aren’t much better. Prior to UC Berkeley’s investigation, a period underwear brand called Thinx engaged in three lawsuits amounting to one large three-year-long action class case where they were found guilty of their products containing PFAS [per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances]. PFAS are nicknamed “forever chemicals,” and they are widely used, long-lasting chemicals, which break down very slowly over time. PFAS additionally come with their own special bundle of health risks such as changes in liver enzymes, increases in cholesterol levels, and kidney/testicular cancer, according to the CDC. 45% of sanitary pads and panty liners tested positive for PFAS and 65% of period underwear. These ubiquitous chemicals aren’t only found in period products, however, being present in everything from tap water to shampoo since the 1950s. Certain bans and restrictions have been put in place for the near future thankfully, but most don’t go into effect for another 15 or so years.
Safety seems to be nowhere in sight. We simply cannot hide from chemicals that have infiltrated every part of our lives–and bodies. Finding menstrual product lines that you can trust is so important to the broad range of 15 to 49-year-olds who rely on these care tools. Pushing our world further to make companies accountable for the chemicals processed in manufacturing stages is crucial, and the longer we remain impotent, the longer we face the dangerous consequences of tampons.
