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A new study has found trace amounts of metal in tampons. Should you be worried?
The findings of the recent study that found metal in tampons is not a cause for alarm. Scientists from the University of California Berkeley found trace amounts of metal(loids) in tampons raising questions and understandable concerns.
Whilst there has been a lot of uncertainty and concern about tampons, one fact is unquestionable: no manufacturers should be adding metals to tampons.
Metals do, however, naturally occur in the earth and so naturally appear in tampons the same way they appear in many things we consume on a daily basis like food and water. Soil naturally contains 92 elements, including 18 essential nutrients for plant growth. These nutrients include macronutrients like Carbon, Calcium, Nitrogen, Sulphur, Phosphorus, Magnesium, and Potassium, and micronutrients like Molybdenum, Chlorine, Sodium, Zinc, Manganese, Boron, Silicon, Copper, and Iron. Soil also contains trace amounts of heavy metals such as Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Lead, Nickel, Mercury, Manganese, and Zinc.
Plants absorb these heavy metals along with essential nutrients. These Macronutrients, Micronutrients and heavy metals originate from the breakdown of rocks and organic matter in soil formation.
Though heavy metals are naturally present in small amounts, certain farming practices can increase their levels in soil. Conventional farming often uses fertilisers and pesticides containing heavy metals, leading to their buildup in soil and crops. These additives degrade the soil and create a dependency on synthetic additives. Organic farming maintains healthy soils without synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, preserving the soil’s natural balance and supporting the production of safe, healthy plants for food and textiles, including the organic cotton used in our pads, tampons, and liners.
Metals are impossible to entirely eradicate from anything that comes from the soil, and the amount found in tampons is actually very small, lower than the EU thresholds for food.
Leading scientist and expert on menstrual health, Dr Jen Gunter also reviewed the contents against Californian thresholds.
She concluded “Now, you can see that a human could never use enough tampons in a day to get anywhere near the amount of arsenic or cadmium the EPA allows in a single bottle of water or what California allows in supplements. Also, green tea and black tea have more arsenic than a super tampon.
So what about lead? One super tampon could have more lead than California allows in supplements, but the amount is still less than the EPA allows in a bottle of water. If someone uses three super tampons a day, using the tampon with the highest levels, then they would be just over the lead allowed in a single 500 ml bottle of water. As an important reminder, most tampons had much less lead. In fact, 75% of tampons had 215 ng/g of lead or less.”
While amounts are small, it is impossible for them to be zero. Any brand or manufacturer claiming they have no metal or undetectable amounts of metal in their tampons are either actively misleading the public or are using testing methods that are insufficiently sensitive.
What about our tampons?
&SISTERS by Mooncup tampons are certified by GOTS as 100% organic cotton. GOTS has strict regulations for the presence of chemical substances that could pose a potential health and safety risk. It sets limit values for several chemicals, including heavy metals. This means all of our products are third party tested to ensure that metals don’t exceed safe thresholds.
As always we stand in support of further research and development of safety standards for the period care industry, and we hope the conversation around this study sparks more investment into broader menstrual health research.
