My fiance has heard some scary-sounding stuff about dioxin, and I was wondering if anybody knew the facts.
Apparently, dioxin is a chemical associated with the bleaching process of some cottons, specifically the cotton in tampons. The report she heard was that dioxin has been linked to endometriosis, infertility, and other nasties.
Her source claimed that the FDA tested dioxin in a study unrelated to tampons and found that even low levels of dioxin absorbtion can be toxic. The FDA has never tested tampons in this area, however, in spite of repeated requests by concerned groups. Her source went on to speculate about a possible cover-up.
Just about all tampons you’ll ever find in the supermarket have dioxin, except for Tampax Naturals (and they’re pretty hard to find.) In England, iirc, some women there made a fuss about it, and now tampons with dioxin can’t be sold there. (Can anyone confirm this?)
So how big of a deal is this? Should I be concerned?
Here is a link to The Museum of Menstruation.In particular, an article about legislation intended to protect us gals against dioxin, etc.
I’ve never used UBB code before, so just in case I screwed up, the address is www.mum.org and click on Tampon Safety Act in the first paragraph.
Hope this helps
Go to the Urban Legends Reference Page, at www.snopes.com and search for “tampon” or “dioxin”, to get an extensive answer to this.
It boils down to: yes and no, but not for the reasons parading around the net in the form of a scaremail containing some of the “information” you cite.
Ooh, I love your magazine. My favorite section is `How to increase your word power’. That thing is really, really… really… good. – Homer, ``Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’’
And my “Urban Legend” or “Junk Scaremail” warnings always go off when I see “cover up” or “conspiracy” associated with the US Gov’t. They generally couldn’t “cover up” a Hershey Kiss. There are dioxins in Tampax Naturals, too, because the bad news is, there are dioxins in cotton pretty extensively. And of course, even “all natural” tampons can cause TSS or Toxic Shock, which causes all sorts of bad stuff, and has nothing whatever to do with dioxins.
Ooh, I love your magazine. My favorite section is `How to increase your word power’. That thing is really, really… really… good. – Homer, ``Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’’
And if you’re worried about minute amounts of dioxin, the data from people exposed to the highest concentrations for the longest periods indicate that the only thing it causes is chloracne, a bad skin rash. Dioxins cause cancer in lab rats, and the EPA supposes that they do in humans, but there is no believable data to back this up.
There was recently a flap in the San Francisco Bay area about a factory which was draining water contaminated with dioxin into the bay, causing protests. However, Steve Milloy of the Junk Science Home Page and Mike Gough of Cato measured that the dioxin in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is of a higher concentration than the effluent coming straight out of the nasty factory.
Well, it certainly sounds like a legit concern, but you could just not use tampons and switch to pads if you’re worried. Why anyone would use tampons on a regular basis is beyond me. You can’t see them, so you don’t know if they’re positioned incorrectly until they leak. But they are useful for certain occasions (swimming, playing sports), so it’s good to keep informed on issues of safety. Just one thing…“the Museum of Menstruation”??? Gimme a break!
Ick. I never ever use pads, and I’ve never had a tampon leak on me unless I left it in too long.
Pads are horrible: A) they CAN be positioned incorrectly B) You can feel it when you’re wearing one C) Disposal is much trickier and gross D) They’re much harder to carry around E) They’re messier F) they smell worse G) shall I go on…
CurtC, I love you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting your link!
This tampon/cancer thing is the scaremail that my sister sent me; I remembered it as being asbestos rather than dioxin. I have been doing everything I can to squash it. Thank you for furthering the cause.
Okay, from Snopes and the FDA, I got the following information:
Dioxin do cause cancer. Also, from Snopes,
Tampons (except unbleached ones) do contain dioxins.
By all accounts, the amount present in tampons is not enough to cause cancer. The FDA did not comment on whether the amount was enough to cause other health problems. I haven’t found any info on that at all. Anybody know any better info?
If you’re worried about it, you can switch to unbleached ones, such as Tampax Naturals. These will have no dioxins. However, Snopes seemed to indicate these will have a much higher concentration of pesticides. (Snopes provided no information as to whether this was a health risk.)
My take: I don’t know if the dioxins in bleached Tampons are a health risk. I don’t know if the higher concentration of pesticides in unbleahced tampons are a health risk. I wish we had better info. I guess I would go for unbleached ones for now (if I used Tampons), and hope for more research.
Your Quadell
P.S. Hepzibah, you’ve been pretty confrontational here. None of the information I mentioned in my post was discounted by Snopes. (I hadn’t heard the asbestos scare or the misinformation about rayon. They seem to be red herrings.) And, according to Snopes, Tampax naturals don’t contain any dioxins. But thanks for the link though.
Sorry, wasn’t meaning to be confrontational at all. I just hate all the crap circulating around the internet as scare-mail, so I came across more peevish than I intended. And I did reread the snopes entry after I posted it, kicking myself for getting the unbleached thing wrong - the bad news was that they contained pesticides as you pointed out.
Sorry again.
I do prefer tampons, I must confess, so the pesticides thing was a bit of a worry. However, we get higher levels of pesticides in other things we eat. So it’s hard to know how bad anything is, or where to start digging when trying to avoid such things.
Ooh, I love your magazine. My favorite section is `How to increase your word power’. That thing is really, really… really… good. – Homer, ``Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’’
Forgot to add: I wrongly assumed that your scaremail contained the other things you referred to as red herrings that are mentioned on ULRS, because the one making the rounds which I and other friends received did contain them – so they’re out there. Sounds like you got a less hysterical version.
Ooh, I love your magazine. My favorite section is `How to increase your word power’. That thing is really, really… really… good. – Homer, ``Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’’
You forgot the end of your sentence: “in lab rats.”
The available science does not point to dioxin as a cause of human cancer or any other health effects, other than a skin rash caused by high concentrations. There’s a politcal effort by environmental groups to declare that dioxin is the scourge of the Earth. They seem to have it out for any chemical containing chlorine. The EPA, which is very much a politcal agency, and sympathetic to the greens, has ignored the advice of its own science advisory board in declaring dioxin a carcinogen. See Cato’s EPA Uses U.N. Agencies to Overcome U.S. Scientific Review.
The most believable human epidemiological studies (largest populations, largest exposures, best methodolgy) have not found increased cancer in those exposed to dioxin. See JunkScience’s Dioxin Update from Seveso.
Girl, you said it. Ewwwwww! pads are kinda creepy (pardon the pun) and wierd.
Anyway - to the topic at hand:
I’ve been using standard, white, drugstore, rayon/cotton, BLEACHED tampons for over 10 years now…I’m not dead. Yes it’s scary, possibly putting toxic things up “there”, but really - breathing nowdays causes cancer. AND there is no conclusive data from the FDA that says the tampon/toxin thing is a problem.
If you’re really worried about it, though I don’t think it’s gonna kill you, just switch to those creepy pads. At least you’ll feel better mentally.
Oh thanks, sunbear! I was drinking a cup of coffee when I read your post! At least I wasn’t wearing a tampon this morning.
mellonhead said she’d been using plain old tampons for over 10 years with no problems - elderly lady that I am,I’ve been using them for over 20 years without any problems that I’m aware of. Of course, I may find out tomorrow that I’ve got cancer . . .
BTW, I’ve been told that some people who work around loud machinery use tampons as cheap earplugs. They cut them off short and tie the strings together so they can hang them around their necks when not in use.
Weird.
Some days you’re the dog, some days you’re the hydrant.
