Tampons and cancer

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Tampons and cancer

Over the last few years, there have been e-mails circulating about asbestos and dioxins in tampons manufactured in the United States. The available scientific evidence does not support these rumours.

The e-mail states that:

Tampon manufacturers add asbestos to their products to promote excessive menstrual bleeding in order to sell more tampons.
The tampon industry believes that women need bleached white products in order to view the products as pure and clean. The result of bleaching is that tampons contain toxic amounts of the chemical dioxin.
Dr B.S. Katzenellenbogen, Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, Cell & Structural Biology supports the claims.
Science tells us that:

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the safety of medical devices, including tampons. FDA has no evidence of asbestos in tampons or any reports regarding increased bleeding following tampon use. According to Philip Tierno Jr., MD, chief of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Centre and an expert on tampon safety issues, these allegations are absurd. Dr Tierno examined manufacturers’ documents during past toxic shock litigation, and found asbestos is not used in the manufacturing of tampons.
Tampons are made from cotton, rayon or blends of both. Rayon is made from cellulose fibres derived from wood pulp. In this process the wood pulp is bleached. Bleaching the wood pulp was a potential source of trace amounts of dioxin in tampons at one time, but that bleaching method is no longer used. Rayon raw material used in US tampons is now produced using elemental chlorine-free or totally chlorine free bleaching processes. State-of-the-art testing of tampons and tampon materials that can detect even trace amounts of dioxin has shown that dioxin levels are at or below the detectable limit. No risk to health would be expected from these trace amounts. Risk assessment indicates that this exposure is many times less than normally present in the body from other environmental sources, so small that any risk of adverse health effects is considered negligible.
Dr Katzenellenbogen is a legitimate scientist. She has disavowed claims in the e-mail and her apparent connection to it, which arose without her knowledge and approval.
The Canadian Cancer Society understands that Canadians are concerned about cancer, but recommends that you be cautious of any medical information or claims obtained from the unmonitored Internet – the Internet can be an empowering source of information but it should never be substituted for a relationship with a physician.

Last modified on: 26 June 2008
2009 Canadian Cancer Society. All rights reserved.