The modern tampon, as we know it today, was invented and patented by one Dr. Earle Haas in 1931. That was almost 100 years ago! And just last week, UC Berkeley published the first-ever study measuring toxic metals in tampons.
Yes. The first one. Ever.
As it turns out, this was a pretty good idea, because the scientists actually did find some pretty high levels of things you might not want in your vagina. Things like lead … or arsenic.
“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,” study co-author Kathrin Schilling, assistant professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said in a statement.
Via UC Berkeley:
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.
Metals could make their way into tampons a number of ways: The cotton material could have absorbed the metals from water, air, soil, through a nearby contaminant (for example, if a cotton field was near a lead smelter), or some might be added intentionally during manufacturing as part of a pigment, whitener, antibacterial agent, or some other process in the factory producing the products.
It’s not yet clear what, if any, effects on health this has had or could have, but it definitely doesn’t sound good. Maybe the iron and calcium, but there are definitely better ways to get those in your system.
As the study authors point out:
Metals have been found to increase the risk of dementia, infertility, diabetes, and cancer. They can damage the liver, kidneys, and brain, as well as the cardiovascular, nervous, and endocrine systems. In addition, metals can harm maternal health and fetal development.
As much as I’d love to say “Thank goodness for Diva cups!” I’m now wondering what the hell is in those that we don’t know about.
Health issues and concerns specific to women have, for the most part, remained a scientific mystery, largely due to the fact that scientists have not bothered to study them very much. For instance, people have known of the existence of uterine fibroids, which affect 70 percent of white women and 80 percent of Black women, since at least 200 C.E., and we still know next to nothing about them, or very much about how to treat severe cases outside of hysterectomy.
Surely, if cis men regularly suffered from benign ball tumors that could potentially affect their fertility, and for which the only known treatment was a vasectomy, scientists would have ignored that for 2,000 years as well.
Again, trace amounts of toxic metals can be found in most things and we probably don’t have to worry too much about being ambulatory rat traps, but it very much seems like the kind of thing someone should have checked for at some point before now, when we have all been shoving them up our hoo-has for the last century. Is that really too much to ask? Why is this the first time anyone thought to check? And what the hell else aren’t they checking for?
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