A new study about tampons has sparked concern among consumers. The research, published in the journal Environment International, found evidence of 16 different metals in a wide range of tampons sold in the United States and Europe.
In the days since news of the study came out, women have taken to social media to express their alarm about the findings. “Soo nice of them to let us know they found LEAD & ARSENIC in our tampons 20 years after I started my period,” one TikTok user posted.
But while these findings can sound scary, several experts, including one of the scientists who led the research, said they are not a reason to panic, nor to immediately stop using tampons.
Levels of the toxic chemicals detected, including arsenic and lead, were very low, and two prior studies by the same group of researchers did not find significantly higher blood levels of the metals in women who use tampons compared with those who don’t.
“There’s small amounts of these metals found, really, everywhere,” said Dr. Bethany Samuelson Bannow, an associate professor of medicine specializing in hematology at Oregon Health and Science University, who was not involved in the study. “I would actually be less concerned about having these metals in tampons than I would about having them in food or water.”
Here’s what to know about the research and what it might mean for your health.
What the study found
The researchers analyzed 30 tampons from 14 different brands for arsenic, barium, calcium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, lead, selenium, strontium, vanadium and zinc.
Twelve of the metals were present in all of the tampons tested; mercury and chromium were detected in the fewest number of samples. Across all of the tampons, levels were highest for zinc and calcium and lowest for arsenic.
“We honestly were shocked by the results,” said Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University and one of the authors of the study.
Comparing different varieties of tampons, the researchers found no difference in metal concentrations between tampons with or without applicators. Nonorganic tampons had higher levels of lead, but organic tampons had higher levels of arsenic. Name-brand and store-brand products had differing amounts of some of the metals, but no type or brand of tampon had consistently lower levels of all or most of the metals.
The paper doesn’t name any specific brands of tampons because the scientists thought doing so would “take away from the findings,” Dr. Kioumourtzoglou said. “The fact that it was in 100 percent of our samples, it’s a much larger issue than any individual brand.”
The researchers don’t know exactly how the metals got into the tampons, but they have a few theories. One is that the cotton used to make the tampons could have been exposed to metals through pesticides, or via the air, soil or water. Contaminants could also be picked up during the manufacturing process, or some metals might be deliberately added to the tampons; zinc, for instance, can act as an antimicrobial, Dr. Kioumourtzoglou said.
What it might mean for you
Experts said that the most important open question is whether the metals in the tampons can be absorbed into the body through the vagina — something on which there is little research.
“Tampons are meant to absorb from us,” said Dr. Bannow, who has studied tampon absorption. “I don’t think there’s any evidence, necessarily, that the body absorbs anything from them,” though she added that a study directly testing that “needs to be done.”
Several of the metals found are actually beneficial for the body, Dr. Bannow said. Many people take iron, zinc or calcium supplements, for instance.
As for the toxic metals, the amounts detected were very low, said Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, an OB-GYN based in Portland, Ore. Dr. Lincoln made a TikTok video providing context about the findings after followers tagged her in videos of people who were alarmed by them. According to Food and Drug Administration guidelines, females “of childbearing age” should have blood levels below 8.8 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. The study detected an average of 0.12 micrograms of lead in the tampons.
The arsenic levels found in the study shouldn’t be a cause for concern either, Dr. Lincoln added. “People are probably exposed to more arsenic when they eat rice.”
However, Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, a gynecologist and assistant professor of environmental, reproductive and women’s health at Harvard University, said that given that many women use tampons several days a month for decades, the cumulative exposure could be cause for concern. “In a snapshot you can say, ‘Oh, these are all below the limit,’” she said. “But if a young person is using them across their life span, there could be potentially a cumulative body burden.”
More research is needed to determine what risk, if any, the metals found in tampons pose to women’s health. For now, Dr. Kioumourtzoglou said, “these results are not reason to panic.”
“Clickbaity stuff on social media goes viral more quickly than more nuanced discussions,” Dr. Lincoln added. “We have to tease apart the facts from the fiction.”
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