The FDA has just announced a plan to investigate a product millions of women use every day – tampons.
It follows international attention on the menstrual products after a bombshell study earlier this year found many popular brands contain toxic metals.
Long term exposure to these heavy metals – including lead, arsenic and cadmium – has been linked to kidney and liver damage, miscarriage and higher risk of cancer.
Senator Patty Murray, from Washington state, has spearheaded the push for more research into tampons and other menstrual products.
A previous study have shown that some brands of period underwear contains ‘forever chemicals’ which have also been linked to cancer, as well as infertility and hormone problems.
Sen Patty Murray, a democrat from Washington, announced the FDA’s decision to investigate tampon safety. She previously sent a public letter to the agency urging this sort of study
Tests on 30 products purchased in New York, Athens and London found some contained levels of arsenic, chromium and even lead. And all 16 metals tested were detected in at least one tampon
Sen Murray has a history of pushing for more consumer product testing – having pushed legislation focused on cosmetics and baby powder in years past.
Announcing the review this week, she said: ‘These are products millions of women are using on any given day, so it’s important we absolutely put to rest any concerns about their safety’.
‘For too long, women’s health has been overlooked and understudied—ever since I came to Congress, making sure that women’s health was a federal priority has been important to me.’
Sen Murray said the FDA has promised to organize an independent group to review older studies on this topic to determine how widespread the problem is.
This includes looking at studies that measure how the long-term health of tampon users differs from those who use other menstrual products.
They also announced that the Center for Devices and Radiological Health Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, an arm of the agency, will be beginning a new study to determine how common heavy metals are in tampons.
About 34 million US women use tampons – making it the first line of defense against a period for about 47 percent of people on their monthly cycle, according to Harvard T.H. Chan researchers.
It’s unclear how exactly heavy metals get into these products. Cotton plants, used in making the tampons, have been shown to absorb heavy metals from soil, pesticides, fertilizers and wastewater, the Berkeley researchers said in their July paper, published in the journal Environmental International.
It also possible the metals could’ve been introduced in the manufacturing process as workers apply chemicals to the tampon to whiten the products, disinfect them and reduce their odor.
Historically, manufacturers have used heavy metals in everything from paint to batteries to cosmetics – so researchers have become aware of a wide variety of health problems associated with them. If you swallow, inhale or otherwise come into contact with heavy metals briefly, they likely won’t do you harm.
But long-term exposure to heavy metals has been linked to brain damage and memory loss, breathing problems, liver damage, kidney damage, miscarriage, abnormal heart beat and a higher risk of cancer.
Research hasn’t looked specifically into how contacting these chemicals through a tampon could affect a person – but the vagina is made of highly absorbent tissue, which makes it possible, theoretically, for it to absorb heavy metals.
Older studies by watchdog organizations like the Environmental Working Group have raised concerns about the presence of perfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS or forever chemicals, in many household items, including tampons
In the July, when the Berkeley study was released, researchers detailed they found lead, and all 16 other heavy metals tested, in all 30 tampons they tested from 14 different brands.
The researchers declined to comment on which brands were tested, but they shared that they are all available from major retailers in the US, UK and parts of Europe.
The organic products they tested had higher levels of Arsenic in them, and non-organic products had higher levels of lead in them
Right now, the US regulates tampons as a medical device – which means the FDA reviews them for absorbency, strength, integrity and whether or not they enhance the growth of harmful bacteria.
It is not clear if they test for heavy metals specifically.
