By Staff Reporter
Women who use Tampons to manage their menstrual cycles are exposed to a greater risk of developing cancer of the reproductive system owing to the presence of heavy toxic metals in the menstrual products.
Over 100 million women in over 120 countries Zimbabwe included, use tampons during their menstrual cycle. Most tampons are made from cotton and rayon, both of which are made from plants that may be exposed to heavy metal contamination in the soil.
However, a new study conducted by researchers at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and published in the journal Environment International identified the presence of 16 different heavy metals in tampons from 14 different brands.
For this study, researchers evaluated levels of 16 heavy metals — arsenic, barium, calcium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, lead, selenium, strontium, vanadium, and zinc — in 30 tampons from 14 tampon brands and 18 product lines.
We did find all 16 metals we tested for in at least one tampon, but we didn’t find all 16 metals in all of the tampons,” Jenni A. Shearston, a postdoctoral scholar at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, and lead author of this study explained to Medical News.
“However, we did find lead in 100% of the tampons we tested — this was really surprising to me.”
Shearston’s team also compared the heavy metal concentrations between where the tampons were purchased — the U.S. or U.K. — as well as store-brand vs. name-brand and organic vs. non-organic.
Researchers reported that no specific category had consistently lower amounts of all or most metals.
They did find that non-organic tampons had the highest concentration of lead, and organic tampons had the highest amount of arsenic.
“I thought these differences were really interesting, and they might be driven in part by the fact that the organic tampons we tested were made of 100% cotton,” Shearston said. “However, I couldn’t make a recommendation on whether or not one type of tampon is safer than another, because first, we need to understand which metals can leach out of the tampons.”
Which tampon brands are safest to use?
In this study, Shearston and her team tested tampons from a variety of manufacturers, including top sellers on a major online retailer and store-brand tampons. So how can readers determine which is the safest tampon to use?
Although the researchers did not disclose the brands they tested, Shearston advised readers to understand the consistency of the study’s results.
“We found metals present in all the tampons we tested, regardless of brand, organic or not, name brand, or store brand,’ she continued. “This really underscores how important it is to continue studying tampons and menstrual products.”
Dr Lydia Jahl, senior scientist at the Green Science Policy Institute said consumers should reach out to their favorite tampon brand to see if they do testing for toxic metals in their tampons, and select tampons that have the lowest levels of toxic metals and other harmful chemicals.
“Unfortunately, the results of this study did not show meaningful differences across all metals between organic/non-organic and name-brand/store-brand, so those characteristics cannot be used to choose safer tampons,” Jahl continued.
“People who menstruate could also look into alternative menstrual products such as pads, menstrual underwear, or menstrual cups, though these categories can also contain harmful additives,” she said.
Article originally published by Medical News
