| Cost (to you and the earth) The average woman will throw out 10 000 to 15 000 pads and or tampons in her lifetime. (Thats enough pink plastic to build 40 lifescale model elephants (I think).) Polution may not be the number one issue on your list but the more species we wipe out by dumping in their natural habitats, the fewer our chances of survival in future generations. -Dumping contaminates ground water. -Plastic that is used in the production of industry tampons and pads is generally non-biodegradable. (so even when you throw it in the little silver pail in the rest room, you'll never really get rid of it.) -The absorbant fibre in your pad/tampon comes from trees that take decades to grow back. reducing the earths capacity to filter the air you breathe. -Tampons and "sanitary napkins" are bleached at the pulp mill to APPEAR sterilized, when in reality there is no legislation or regulation on how clean they have to be. (Scary thought since they are meant to be inserted into YOUR body.) |
| 1 |
| 2 |
| Safety and Fertility The bleaching proces as described above releases a chemical byproduct called Dioxin into ground water and into the fibre itself. Exposure to Dioxin has been shown conclusively to cause Endomitriosis in animal testing (a painfull affliction causing abdominal bleeding and infertility). -55 Million women (and rising) in the U.S. and Canada suffer from Endomitriosis and cases are becoming more and more common in very young women. DIOXIN can be found more potently in meat, fish and dairy products and has also been linked to cancer, diabetes, infertility, lowered sperm count in men, organ toxicity and supressed immune system function. |
| 3 |
| Conscience Every time you purchase a big name menstrual product, you support an industry that admittedly attempts to persuade our children in an attempt to gain a lifetime of consumer loyalty through advertising and providing samples and "instructional videos" to schools.. -You support and encourage gross negligence such as the introduction of a new (minimally tested) fibre in 1980 which caused 38 deaths to women who developed a condition called Toxic Shock Syndrome. (The same fibres are being used even today unregulated and unnoticed by those of us who put ourselves at risk.) -You support add campaigns that target our lingering insecurities about female and male equity in the work place. Undoing all that our mothers and grandmothers once fought for. -You support a faceless boardroom of people who don't think you deserve to know how the products you use work, are produced or are disposed of. A corporation of people who only care that you're spending your money on their product. |