Everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask about green tampons & sanitary napkins
This week, we’re going to take an in-depth look at greener tampon and sanitary napkin options. We’ve looked at this before when Tree Hugging Family went extreme green – but more in passing. Luckily, for you, I’ve used many of the greener feminine products out there, so I’ll post some reviews. At the end of this week, I’ll compile a handy round-up post of everything we’re going to cover this week.
Today we’re going to kick things off with the eco negatives of conventional female products.
Landfill issues: Of course even just one woman creates enough tampon and maxi-pad waste over her lifetime to make you cringe – just where are all these products ending up? In landfills of course. Multiply this issue by all the many women in the world and it gets pretty scary. Many conventional options are not biodegradable and this includes the product plus packaging.
Animal issues: From tampon and pad companies that test on animals (most of the conventional ones) to the thousands of plastic tampon applicators washing up on beaches each year, choking birds and fish, conventional tampons and pads pose huge threats to wildlife and habitat. Not to mention human health safety – do you want to vacation at a tampon filled beach?
Health issues: I’m sorry, but when it comes to where we put tampons and maxi-pads; is this really somewhere you want pesticides and chemicals?! Ick.
- 107: number of ingredients in pesticides thought to cause cancer, and it’s not as if we’ve haven’t tested them all. (After Silent Spring, NRDC, 6/93)
- 5 out of 9: Number of pesticides used on cotton that are categorized as “The most dangerous chemicals” by the EPA.
- 25% plus: Estimated amount of insecticides that annually (and globally) end up in conventional cotton.
- Many conventional tampons and pads are chock full of dyes, fragrances, and rayon.
- The FDA has publicly, and rather frantically, released statements, in the past, that rumors about tampon safety are incorrect – that chemicals are doing no harm – whether or not you trust the FDA’s judgment is a long discussion for another time, but in the meanwhile read this.
Coming up: Reviews of some better, greener choices you can make when it comes to tampons and pads.
[photo via stock.xchng]
VERY excited to read the upcoming reviews. Using applicatorless tampons, but would like more info!