The Toxic Truth: What’s Really in Your Tampon?

By: Carolina Kelly
Writer

Lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals were found in organic and nonorganic tampons in an abstract published by the National Library of Medicine on June 22, 2024. All 60 tampons tested were found to have concentrations of several toxic metals. What the bloody hell?

The metal(loids) were found by putting samples of tampons in a microwave that reach up to 200°-260°C (392°-500°F) with acid to quickly break down materials. Arsenic, barium, calcium, cadmium, colbat, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, lead, selenium, strontium, vanadium, and zinc were detected at varying levels in all tampons that were tested. If you use tampons, you are exposed to an average of…

Lead: 900ng/tampon, 18,000ng/cycle, 216,000ng/year, 1,080,000ng/5 years

Arsenic: 26.88ng/tampon, 537.6ng/cycle, 6,451.2ng/year, 32,256ng/5 years

Cadmium: 50.55/tampon, 1,011ng/cycle, 12,132ng/year, 60,660ng/5 years

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has arsenic as a listed carcinogenic (ability to produce or cause cancer). The EPA says that there is no safe level of exposure to lead. OSHA lists Cadmium as highly toxic and that it is known to cause cancer. It is known to target neurological and reproductive systems.