In the US, 52-86% of women use tampons during their menstrual cycle.
All tampons and sanitary products legally sold in the US must be approved as ‘safe and effective’ by the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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However, a recent study by Shearston and colleagues, published in Environment International in June this year, found significant traces of several toxic metals (including arsenic, lead, and zinc) in 30 different tampons across 14 separate brands.
Exposure to toxic metals is a major risk factor for several life-limiting conditions such as cancer, dementia, and infertility.
This begs the question of why the FDA approves and encourages the sale of these unsafe products that could negatively impact a woman’s long-term health.
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Ensuring thorough testing of sanitary products used by menstruating women, and disclaiming any potentially harmful components in these products, should be made a priority for the FDA.
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By GlobalDataGlobalData (a leading data and analytics company) epidemiologists anticipate that if menstruating women were aware of the toxic metals found in tampons from the list, they would be more hesitant about regularly using them – which could reduce a woman’s risk of diseases such as cancer, dementia, and infertility by reducing their exposure to toxic metals.
Shearston and colleagues detected traces of all 16 metals they tested for in the tampons; the metals detected included arsenic, barium, calcium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, lead, selenium, strontium, vanadium, and zinc.
When comparing metal concentrations by tampon characteristics, Shearston and colleagues found that the highest concentrations of certain metals varied from the US, UK, and the EU; for example, the concentrations of cobalt and lead were lower in tampons purchased in the EU and UK when compared to those purchased in the US.
When comparing organic and non-organic tampons, it was found that organic tampons had higher concentrations of arsenic, whereas non-organic tampons had higher concentrations of lead.
Concerningly, all tested tampons (including organic) contained lead.
According to Shearston and colleagues, there is no safe level of exposure to lead and if any were to leach out of a tampon and reach systemic circulation it could contribute to negative health outcomes.
Lead can be stored within the bones for years, and is associated with numerous adverse neurological, renal, cardiovascular, haematological, immunological, reproductive, and developmental effects.
A 2023 study published by Lin and colleagues in Frontiers in Public Health tested the association between heavy metal exposure and infertility among American women of reproductive age in a cross-sectional analysis from 2013-18 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.
The medical records of 838 women with cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic levels in their blood or urine were examined, and 13.37% of these women were subject to infertility, which is significantly more than in the control group of women who had no traces of metal in their blood or urine.
This highlights the risk of the potential leaching of metals from tampons into the female body.
The FDA should prohibit the sale of sanitary products that contain harmful metals, and there should be full transparency regarding the components of the products that women put in their bodies.
Further research is also needed to validate the findings of the study by Shearston and colleagues and to investigate the likelihood of the aforementioned metals leaching through the vaginal epithelium into systemic circulation.
GlobalData epidemiologists currently forecast that in 2024 there will be 5.34 million total prevalent cases of female infertility in the US among women aged 15-44 years, which will increase to 5.49 million cases by 2033.
However, if the exposure to toxic metals associated with tampons is eliminated, the risk of infertility may be much lower, and fewer women will be likely to experience infertility.
