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Do you get a filing system?

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Oh, God, no, I just have the ones that want it.

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It's all bad news.

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Don't worry.

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So Chelsea, this one I have found on many websites.

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This one will let me read it.

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So I'm going to read it from this one.

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He's called Cosmos Cosmos magazine dot com.

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Written by Ellen Fideon on July 4th, 2024.

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Article title tampons shown to contain toxic metals

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in first study to test for them.

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Hmm, doesn't sound good right off the bat.

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I'm sure it gets better from here.

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Don't worry.

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I'm sure it does.

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That's always how our articles go, right?

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Yeah, it is always.

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Always.

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They always start bad and then good.

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Yeah, US researchers have found small concentrations of metals

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like lead, arsenic and cadmium in tampons.

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They say more research is needed to discover if there is any danger to tampon users.

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Quote, although toxic metals are ubiquitous

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and we are exposed to low levels at any given time,

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our study clearly shows that metals are also present in menstrual products

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and that women might be at higher risks of exposure using these products.

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Says Catherine Schilling, an assistant professor at Columbia University, U.S.

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and co-author of a study published in Environmental International.

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Lead author Jenny Shearston, a postdoctoral scholar

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at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.

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says it's the first study of his kind.

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Quote, despite this large potential for public health concern,

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very little research has been done to measure chemicals in tampons.

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To our knowledge, this is the first paper to measure metals in tampons.

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Concerningly, we found concentrations of metals we tested for,

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including toxic metals like arsenic and lead.

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The researchers tested 30 different types of tampons from 14 different brands sold

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in the U.S. and Europe.

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They looked for 16 different metals, arsenic, barium, calcium, cadmium,

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cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, lead,

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selenium, strontium, vanadium and zinc.

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The study found measurable concentrations of all 16 metals.

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Arsenic, lead and cadmium were all found in concentrations of nanograms per gram.

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And no brand or type of tampon had notably lower levels of metals overall.

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Organic tampons had higher levels of arsenic, but nonorganic tampons

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had higher levels of lead.

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It is not known whether these concentrations could cause negative health effects on users.

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And there are several different ways the metals could have become embedded into tampons.

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Cotton plants can absorb metals from the soil and water, particularly when there are nearby contaminants.

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They can also be added during manufacturing processes as whiteners, antibacterial agents,

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or through cross contamination from other factory processes.

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Tampons are widely used by people who menstruate.

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Very interesting way to say that.

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But 300 million tampons are sold in Australia each year.

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And other studies have found that more than half of menstruators in the US use tampons.

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Nearly half of menstruators in Spain.

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Don't know that, huh?

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That was a very weird amalgamation of countries right there.

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I'm just thinking this last paragraph in general just is not making a lot of sense to me.

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Yeah.

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Like you get to the end of the article and you're thinking, what now?

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What the fuck is a menstruator?

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Yeah. And then it just throws in other countries just like willy nilly.

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The researchers also point out that the vagina has more permeable membrane

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and could absorb these contaminants faster than other places in the body.

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And they urge further research to see if these metals could be leached out of the tampon during use.

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I'm going to go with yes.

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Quote, I really hope that manufacturers are required to test these products for metals,

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especially for toxic metals.

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End quote says cheers to you.

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I'm going to go with no.

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And I'm going to finish off with the rest of the quote.

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It would be exciting to see the public call for this or to ask for better labeling of tampons

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and other menstrual products, end quote, and article.

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I think exciting is the wrong word to use there in that last quote.

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I think there are a lot of words that I probably wouldn't have put in.

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Yes, very many.

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I think for me, it's the last one.

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But yeah, this just falls into my category of things that are polluting the world

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that we really don't think about.

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And the world's kind of a really weird way to say it because it's clearly just affects women

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and menstruating individuals.

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But probably something that has never crossed your mind as somebody who is a flex.

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I mean, it was about to say like, where do we think these metals are coming from?

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I'm going to say that it's probably somewhere in the manufacturing process.

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Not that we're not growing plants in tons of chemicals.

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Even fruits and vegetables are grown in tons of chemicals.

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So what makes cotton that is not consumed?

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Chelsea, I don't think anybody consumes cotton.

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I don't think there's any regulation with what kind of chemicals are spraying on there.

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So it could come from there.

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But yeah, where in the process is there the disconnect of like, where is the arsenic coming

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from?

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Well, and they said very clearly, it makes sense.

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It's coming from the soil.

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And I actually think it makes a lot of sense in that cotton for the most part is not something

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that is consumed or put in the body per se, like most of the actual uses of cotton are

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external to the body.

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So I think this is something that's kind of passed by.

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And most importantly, because this is a thing that affects women folk.

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As it's going to say, as a man, 100% of your cotton uses are outside of the world.

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100% of it.

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Unless you are shot and then inserted to have thought to block the bleeding.

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I honestly think this is one of those things where it's just like the impact of sexism

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has caused it to not be studied in a way is like, Hey, just so everybody knows cotton

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can be internal too.

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Yeah, which is concerning, especially when it comes to all those heavy metals being included

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in them, because I believe they said nobody knows how it affects.

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Yes, because nobody, nobody surprisingly has studied the absurdity.

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The absorption of these metals through the vagina, which is what's going to be happening.

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I'm going to go with their being absorbed.

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So that's more bad news from Taylor.

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Yes, the one.

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The non-vegina owning Taylor, who is just speculating on things right now.

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It's not speculation.

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You read from an article.

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I read from Margo and said that was speculation article.

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Okay.

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Well, I mean, there were two women who were really saying like, Hey, these things are

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in here.

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We should really study this.

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Yeah, we should.

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That would be good.

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And if they do end up studying it, which I guess they need a man to sign off on it probably

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at some point, which not their fault, not my fault.

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I am clearly just disowning myself with this issue right now.

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But yeah, I assume there's going to be more banjoes down the line here, but I don't know

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how to frame it.

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So I think it's just good place to stop and the women they'll show up for the next 48

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hours, right?

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Right, Chelsea?

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Yeah.

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Well, they'll come back to listen to the episode Friday.

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Yeah, that's good.

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That's good to know.

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In the meantime.

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You tell them that.

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Okay, bye.

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Okay.

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Yeah, bye.