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Tampons, used by millions of people each year, may contain worrying levels of toxic metals including lead, arsenic and cadmium, a world-first study warns.
The findings are of particular concern because vaginal skin is more likely to absorb chemicals than skin in other parts of the body, the researchers said.
“Our study clearly shows that menstrual products also contain metals, and that women may be at higher risk of metal exposure when using these products,” said study co-author Kathryn Schilling.
By some estimates, more than half of all menstruating people use tampons every month, sometimes for several hours at a time.
Previous studies have also linked exposure to toxic metals such as lead and arsenic to a variety of health conditions including dementia, infertility, diabetes and cancer, as well as damage to organs such as the liver, kidneys and brain.
“Despite the huge public health concerns, very little research has been done to measure the chemicals in tampons,” said lead study author Jenny Shearston.
“To our knowledge, this is the first paper to measure metals in tampons and, worryingly, we found concentrations of every metal we tested for, including toxic metals such as arsenic and lead,” Dr Shearston said.
In the study, led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, scientists evaluated the levels of 16 metals, including arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, lead and selenium, in 30 tampons from 14 different brands.
The researchers found that all types of tampons contained metals, whether purchased in the US or the EU/UK, but no one category had consistently lower concentrations of most metals.
Researchers suspect that metals could have gotten into tampons in a variety of ways during manufacturing.
Some of these, they say, may have been intentionally added during production as pigments, bleaches, antibacterial agents or as part of other processes in the factory.
Scientists say cotton fabric can absorb toxic metals from water, air, soil or nearby pollutants.
“I would really like to see it made mandatory for manufacturers to test their products for metals, especially toxic metals. It would be great to see the public demanding this and calling for better labelling on tampons and other menstrual products,” Dr Searston said.
At this time, it is unclear whether the metals detected in the latest study contribute to any health risks.
Scientists are calling for more research to understand this and determine how much of these toxic metals leached from tampons are absorbed by the body.