What's The Deal With Toxins In Tampons And Menstrual Pads?
For the past two years, everyone’s been talking about PFAS (otherwise known as forever chemicals) in menstrual pads and now suddenly, there’s lots of talk about metals, like lead and arsenic, in tampons.
Researchers evaluated levels of 16 metals (arsenic, barium, calcium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, lead, selenium, strontium, vanadium, and zinc) in 30 tampons from 14 different brands. The metal concentrations varied by where the tampons were purchased (US vs. EU/UK), organic vs. non-organic, and store- vs. name-brand. However, they found that metals were present in all types of tampons; no category had consistently lower concentrations of all or most metals. Lead concentrations were higher in non-organic tampons but arsenic was higher in organic tampons.
“Although toxic metals are ubiquitous and we are exposed to low levels at any given time, our study clearly shows that metals are also present in menstrual products, and that women might be at higher risk for exposure using these products,” said study co-author Kathrin Schilling, assistant professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
It’s too early to say what effect these toxins found in our menstrual products have on women’s health, since not much research has been done in this regard. Truth be told, we’re surrounded by toxins in every part of our life, from the personal hygiene products we use, including our makeup, to the implements we cook with (did you know non-stick frying pans contain forever chemicals, PFAS) to the food we eat and so much more. At Blushproof® we love following Dr Mindy Peltz who gives wonderful advice on how to detoxify our environment and our bodies.
Perhaps these toxins found in the menstrual products we’ve been using aren’t bad for us (time and research will tell), but why risk it? At Blushproof® we’ve spent lots of time and effort carefully choosing our fabric suppliers to ensure that only the best fabric is used for the making of our pad that we sew into the panty. The fabric manufacturer has committed to producing fabric that is safe for you and the environment. They use no heavy metals, latex, BPA, PFOS or PFOA in their products and their manufacturing process reduces their carbon footprint and chemical waste.
Blushproof® period panties are safe to use and the bamboo fabric ones are naturally thermoregulating, hypoallergenic and super comfy. There’s also no product to insert, which means much more vaginal comfort. Many of our customers state that their menstrual pain has reduced since using our period panties. Plus, less single-use disposable products in landfills also means less toxins leaching back into the earth!
Again, as we said, why even risk it? Make the switch so that you can period in comfort and without worrying about being exposed to additional toxins.
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412024004355
