Do you get a filing system?
Oh, God, no, I just have the ones that want it.
It's all bad news.
Don't worry.
So Chelsea, this one I have found on many websites.
This one will let me read it.
So I'm going to read it from this one.
He's called Cosmos Cosmos magazine dot com.
Written by Ellen Fideon on July 4th, 2024.
Article title tampons shown to contain toxic metals
in first study to test for them.
Hmm, doesn't sound good right off the bat.
I'm sure it gets better from here.
Don't worry.
I'm sure it does.
That's always how our articles go, right?
Yeah, it is always.
Always.
They always start bad and then good.
Yeah, US researchers have found small concentrations of metals
like lead, arsenic and cadmium in tampons.
They say more research is needed to discover if there is any danger to tampon users.
Quote, although toxic metals are ubiquitous
and we are exposed to low levels at any given time,
our study clearly shows that metals are also present in menstrual products
and that women might be at higher risks of exposure using these products.
Says Catherine Schilling, an assistant professor at Columbia University, U.S.
and co-author of a study published in Environmental International.
Lead author Jenny Shearston, a postdoctoral scholar
at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.
says it's the first study of his kind.
Quote, despite this large potential for public health concern,
very little research has been done to measure chemicals in tampons.
To our knowledge, this is the first paper to measure metals in tampons.
Concerningly, we found concentrations of metals we tested for,
including toxic metals like arsenic and lead.
The researchers tested 30 different types of tampons from 14 different brands sold
in the U.S. and Europe.
They looked for 16 different metals, arsenic, barium, calcium, cadmium,
cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, mercury, nickel, lead,
selenium, strontium, vanadium and zinc.
The study found measurable concentrations of all 16 metals.
Arsenic, lead and cadmium were all found in concentrations of nanograms per gram.
And no brand or type of tampon had notably lower levels of metals overall.
Organic tampons had higher levels of arsenic, but nonorganic tampons
had higher levels of lead.
It is not known whether these concentrations could cause negative health effects on users.
And there are several different ways the metals could have become embedded into tampons.
Cotton plants can absorb metals from the soil and water, particularly when there are nearby contaminants.
They can also be added during manufacturing processes as whiteners, antibacterial agents,
or through cross contamination from other factory processes.
Tampons are widely used by people who menstruate.
Very interesting way to say that.
But 300 million tampons are sold in Australia each year.
And other studies have found that more than half of menstruators in the US use tampons.
Nearly half of menstruators in Spain.
Don't know that, huh?
That was a very weird amalgamation of countries right there.
I'm just thinking this last paragraph in general just is not making a lot of sense to me.
Yeah.
Like you get to the end of the article and you're thinking, what now?
What the fuck is a menstruator?
Yeah. And then it just throws in other countries just like willy nilly.
The researchers also point out that the vagina has more permeable membrane
and could absorb these contaminants faster than other places in the body.
And they urge further research to see if these metals could be leached out of the tampon during use.
I'm going to go with yes.
Quote, I really hope that manufacturers are required to test these products for metals,
especially for toxic metals.
End quote says cheers to you.
I'm going to go with no.
And I'm going to finish off with the rest of the quote.
It would be exciting to see the public call for this or to ask for better labeling of tampons
and other menstrual products, end quote, and article.
I think exciting is the wrong word to use there in that last quote.
I think there are a lot of words that I probably wouldn't have put in.
Yes, very many.
I think for me, it's the last one.
But yeah, this just falls into my category of things that are polluting the world
that we really don't think about.
And the world's kind of a really weird way to say it because it's clearly just affects women
and menstruating individuals.
But probably something that has never crossed your mind as somebody who is a flex.
I mean, it was about to say like, where do we think these metals are coming from?
I'm going to say that it's probably somewhere in the manufacturing process.
Not that we're not growing plants in tons of chemicals.
Even fruits and vegetables are grown in tons of chemicals.
So what makes cotton that is not consumed?
Chelsea, I don't think anybody consumes cotton.
I don't think there's any regulation with what kind of chemicals are spraying on there.
So it could come from there.
But yeah, where in the process is there the disconnect of like, where is the arsenic coming
from?
Well, and they said very clearly, it makes sense.
It's coming from the soil.
And I actually think it makes a lot of sense in that cotton for the most part is not something
that is consumed or put in the body per se, like most of the actual uses of cotton are
external to the body.
So I think this is something that's kind of passed by.
And most importantly, because this is a thing that affects women folk.
As it's going to say, as a man, 100% of your cotton uses are outside of the world.
100% of it.
Unless you are shot and then inserted to have thought to block the bleeding.
I honestly think this is one of those things where it's just like the impact of sexism
has caused it to not be studied in a way is like, Hey, just so everybody knows cotton
can be internal too.
Yeah, which is concerning, especially when it comes to all those heavy metals being included
in them, because I believe they said nobody knows how it affects.
Yes, because nobody, nobody surprisingly has studied the absurdity.
The absorption of these metals through the vagina, which is what's going to be happening.
I'm going to go with their being absorbed.
So that's more bad news from Taylor.
Yes, the one.
The non-vegina owning Taylor, who is just speculating on things right now.
It's not speculation.
You read from an article.
I read from Margo and said that was speculation article.
Okay.
Well, I mean, there were two women who were really saying like, Hey, these things are
in here.
We should really study this.
Yeah, we should.
That would be good.
And if they do end up studying it, which I guess they need a man to sign off on it probably
at some point, which not their fault, not my fault.
I am clearly just disowning myself with this issue right now.
But yeah, I assume there's going to be more banjoes down the line here, but I don't know
how to frame it.
So I think it's just good place to stop and the women they'll show up for the next 48
hours, right?
Right, Chelsea?
Yeah.
Well, they'll come back to listen to the episode Friday.
Yeah, that's good.
That's good to know.
In the meantime.
You tell them that.
Okay, bye.
Okay.
Yeah, bye.