“Heavy metal tampons.”
It’s NOT the name of a cool new ‘80s retro band!
It’s an alarming finding that came out of a recent study at UC Berkeley. Are there lead and arsenic in your tampons? A recently published scientific article found that popular brands of tampons DO in fact contain these heavy metals. Is this dangerous, and what can we do about it? Stick around and find out!
Don’t have time to read this post? Watch the video here instead!
I’m Doctor Rich. Now, before we get started, I want to shout out to all of my subscribers. Thank you for supporting our channel! I’m here to fact-check and look at the research — so you don’t have to! Go ahead and smash that subscribe button (and turn on your notifications!) so you don’t miss out on health information that you need to know.
Now, 50 to 80% of women use tampons during their menstrual cycle. During their entire lifetime, that’s about 9,000 tampons! If there are heavy metals in there, that’s a lot of exposure! Now, my subscribers might recall that this sounds eerily similar to a video we did a few months back on polyfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAS) — another bad actor found in tampons. You can check that video out here. For this study, investigators evaluated store brand, brand name, and organic tampons sourced from multiple countries.
Now, multiple studies have previously reported contaminants within the tampons (such as the PFAS that we mentioned). But to date, this is the first study that evaluated heavy metals. In total, there were sixteen different metals that were screened for — including lead, for which the EPA states there’s no safe level — and arsenic.
So why are contaminants in the tampon such a big deal? After all, there are likely contaminants all around us in our environment: in food and in drinking water. There are myriad products that people put on their skin for cosmetic reasons, for washing, and for enhancing their natural scent. And virtually ALL of these products contain trace amounts of hazardous chemicals. Now, the rest of our skin (that we apply these ointments, chemicals, and medications to) has a very thick lining, and absorption is fairly minimal. In contrast, the vaginal skin is highly water-permeable in a way that our regular skin is not. The mucus membrane in the vagina (as opposed to the cornified epithelium in our skin) absorbs chemicals rapidly without even metabolizing them.
Some commonly used pharmaceutical products use this to our advantage. One study found that the vaginal application of estradiol (synthetic estrogen hormone) resulted in blood serum levels ten times higher than those following oral doses. But while rapid absorption works well for patients that need a drug delivered rapidly and at low doses, it may also expose women to higher risks of chemicals from feminine hygiene products that manufacturers don’t intend. Furthermore, the skin in the vagina has rugae (or folds) in a way that the flat surface of the rest of our skin does not. These folds increase surface area and therefore increase absorption. And if you think you’re safe with organic tampons, not the case! Lead concentrations were higher in non-organic tampons, but arsenic levels were higher in organic tampons.
So what’s the deal? Where are all these heavy metal contaminants coming from? There are three likely sources. Cotton plants may absorb these chemicals from the soil or from pesticides, specifically arsenic from phosphate fertilizer.
Manufacturers sometimes actually add metals during the production process for the purposes of antimicrobial whitening, odor reduction, and sometimes it’s even advertised that zinc is added. For this purpose, depending on the water source, there can be contaminants within the water that’s used during the manufacturing process.
One of the most concerning findings is that all the tampons, regardless of source, organic, inorganic, or the country that the tampon came from, all had lead. The EPA says there’s no safe level of lead in any product, and it can contribute to ill health consequences. Calcium is replaced by lead when it is absorbed in the bone, and it can last for decades. Even low levels of lead exposure can result in neurobehavioral problems in adults and children. This can affect memory and cause learning disabilities. Inorganic arsenic is a known carcinogen and can have cardiovascular effects.
Two other metals were found in all the tampons: cadmium and zinc. These are commonly added during the manufacturing process — specifically to control odor and as an antimicrobial agent. As we mentioned previously, “organic” tampons do not mean that they’re free of any of these metal contaminants or pesticides. It purely means that they were made out of 100% cotton, while the non-organic tampons are a combination of cotton rayon and viscose.
So where is the FDA in all of this? The FDA does consider tampons a medical device. However, there’s no requirement to test tampons for chemical contaminants. They merely require that tampons don’t contain dioxin or pesticide residues. Now, although these findings of the study are concerning — that all of these different heavy metals were found in tampons — the study was bench. Research was not carried out in humans. No evaluation was done to determine if any of these metals actually leached out of the tampon through the vaginal mucosa and into circulation.
Now, it’s also not all bad news. Some of the heavy metals that were tested for (copper, calcium, iron, and zinc) not only are NOT bad for you, but they’re actually recommended by doctors for dietary supplements.
So what are we supposed to do with this information? Abandon tampons altogether?
There are contaminants throughout the environment — in food, drinking water, clothing, and in chemicals that we put in our skin. There’s no evidence that tampons are any LESS safe than any of these other daily habits that we do. If you feel that this specific exposure may cause your neurologic symptoms or fatigue, you can go to a functional medicine specialist and get a test for heavy metals.
To date, there’s no recommendation by any medical society to not use tampons. But if you choose to use an alternative, there are pads and reusable menstrual cups that would eliminate the exposure risk that you get from a tampon.
