Toxins in Tampons – $5 OFF a box of organic tampons!

The average woman uses over 11,000 tampons in her lifetime.
 
Let me be totally honest with you… A couple weeks ago is the first time I really started thinking about the chemicals in our environment and personal care products and their effect on our bodies. I was so concerned with the chemicals and artificial ingredients in our food system that I completely missed this HUGE issue that contributes to many of our diseases today – toxins.
 

Toxins are in our air, water, food, soil and products.

Out of those 5 sources, there are only a couple that we have control over – food and products are the big ones. I talk about food a lot so now I’d like to bring attention to our products – one product in particular – tampons.
 
Did you ever bother to look at the Tampax tampon website? I know I didn’t until recently. I’m going to pick on Tampax for a little bit. Their tampons “are made from the same ingredients as most other feminine care products on the market”. Just because other companies use them, does that make it right?
 
Tampax tampons are a cotton/rayon blend with polyethylene (plastic), polypropylene (thermoplastic polymer) and “fragrance ingredients like those found in other women’s products”. Not much transparency here…
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As consumers we have to do our research.
The cotton used in our tampons is non-organic (unless otherwise stated). Do you know what we use in the growing process? Let me tell you.
 
  1. GMO seeds are necessary in conventional cotton farming. The land used to grow cotton has not increased over the years, yet our cotton yield has increased by 300%.
  2. Seeds are treated with fungicides and insecticides.
  3. Once planted, synthetic fertilizers aid in the growing process.
  4. Weeds and pests are controlled with herbicides, insecticides and pesticides.
  5. Finally, we harvest the cotton and use more toxic chemicals to remove the leaves.
From this end product, we make tampons and other products.
 
Let me say this again – we use over 11,000 of tampons in our lifetime! The toxins add up ladies!
 

Let’s do a little experiment:

Go grab one of your tampons (trust me you won’t want to use them anymore after this). Unwrap it and place it in a glass of water. After it absorbs the water, remove it, and watch all the remaining fibers floating in the water. These toxin-laced fibers are hanging out in your uterus each time you use a tampon.
 
Side note: your skin is the largest organ in your body. On top of that, your lady parts are especially sensitive and highly permeable.
 
What does that mean? It means that traces of the above chemicals used to grow cotton leach into your body and can have nasty effects.
 
Earlier I touched on the ingredients in Tampax tampons, lets go back to that real quick and talk about why they are bad.
  • The use of viscous rayon (the only rayon allowed in tampons) has the ability to amplify toxins to some extent.
  • In the US, we spray more than one billion tons of pesticides and herbicides on cotton crops yearly.
After harvesting and processing there are residual chemicals that remains on tampons. These can have damaging effects to the nervous system, lead to cancer and even hormone disruption. An example of hormone disruption is high levels of estrogen hormone. This is linked to a higher risk of developing endometriosis and fibroids.

Bonus to buying organic tampons:The lowest risk of developing Toxic Shock Syndrome is with the use of all cotton tampons.

As of now the FDA does not require testing for toxic levels of chemicals in tampons and does not require package warnings.

I hope you leave here feeling like an educated consumer – click this referral link for $5 off a box of organic tampons by SHE, a company created by three sisters who saw a need for a product that is better for us and for our environment.

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