Check Your Tampons, New Jersey… Your Health Depends On It

Tampons. They’re convenient, discreet, and most importantly, they keep us able to maintain our everyday routines even on our not-so-hot days. But here’s the thing — they might not be as safe as we thought.

Recent buzz in the health world suggests that millions of tampons contain toxic materials, such as metal. According to Berkeley, 50-80% of women who menstruate rely on tampons. Despite the fact that almost everyone uses them, tampons are quite understudied when it comes to what’s really inside. This is actually terrifying. This may or may not be a well-known fact, but the skin of the vagina is particularly vulnerable to chemical absorption.

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A study was conducted by the University of California Berkeley with 30 tampons from 14 brands with 16 metals under evaluation (arsenic, barium, calcium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, lead, selenium, strontium, vanadium, and zinc).

Metals were found to be present in all types of tampons, regardless of their price and whether they were organic. Non-organic tampons contained more lead, but organic tampons had higher arsenic concentrations.

Kathrin Schilling, assistant professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said “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.”

Now, before you panic and swear off tampons forever, here’s the skinny: more research is needed to truly understand the risks. Immediate action doesn’t need to be taken just yet on your part necessarily, but it does raise some eyebrows, doesn’t it?

So, what’s a gal to do? That was my immediate question OBVIOUSLY. Well, for starters, staying informed is key. Keeping an eye on what’s in the products we use is always important and can encourage us to make better choices. So, next time you reach for a tampon, maybe take a quick peek at the label. After all, knowing what’s inside is half the battle.

Hopefully, more research will be conducted in the future so we can continue on as we were because... let’s face it —periods are already tough enough without worrying about what’s in our tampons. That's true for me, at least.