Tampons may conain harmful metals, leading to systemic exposure, reveals research

• The study found measurable concentrations of all 16 metals in the tampons. Notably, several toxic metals were detected, including:

• Geometric mean (GM) of Lead: 120 ng/g

• Cadmium: GM of 6.74 ng/g

• Arsenic: GM of 2.56 ng/g

• Metal concentrations varied based on where the tampons were purchased US vs European Union/United Kingdom, organic vs non-organic raw material and Store-brand vs name brand tampons

• The concentration of lead was greater in the non-organic whereas arsenic was highest in the organic tampons

• No category had the lowest concentrations of all or most metals.

The presence of potentially unsafe metals such as lead, gives warning on the safety of the products studied. While lots of the metals emerged more strongly in non-organic pads and tampons, others, like arsenic, were higher in the organic variety.The study calls for verification by future studies and analysis for the possibility of metal leaching from the tampons and crossing the vaginal epithelium into the systemic circulation.

Reference:

Shearston, J. A., Upson, K., Gordon, M., Do, V., Balac, O., Nguyen, K., Yan, B., Kioumourtzoglou, M.-A., & Schilling, K. (2024). Tampons as a source of exposure to metal(loid)s. Environment International, 190(108849), 108849. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2024.108849