Tampax Tampons, Always Sanitary Napkins Recalled for 'Toxic Chemicals'

Several brands of tampons and sanitary napkins including big name brands like Tampax and Always were recalled for having toxic chemicals.

The affected feminine hygiene products that were sold in France have been recalled as the French magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs say they found dioxins and insecticides. Researchers of the study reportedly found the chemicals in five of 11 products they tested, which lead to the recall of 3,100 boxes of sanitary feminine hygiene products in France as well in Canada.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), dioxins are highly toxic substances that can cause cancer, damage the immune system as well as cause adverse developmental and reproductive health effects.

Proctor & Gamble, the company that own Tampax and Always brands, say that their products are safe and have been thoroughly assessed.

"The safety assessments have been reviewed by a committee of independent experts: physicians, scientists and health authorities," said a Proctor & Gamble spokesperson. "The "60 million consumers" mentioning of Dioxin in Tampax is a mistake. The cotton and rayon purification used for our tampons involves an elemental chlorine-free process which does not cause the production of dioxin. This has been confirmed by their analysis."

The company says that the organic solvent used to test their products may be what's causing dioxin to show up in the test.

"Analyses conducted by us during the past three years on comparable products and evaluating over 200 pesticides substances confirms the total absence of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides," they explained.

Johnson & Johnson products, Nett and o.b. tampons, were also listed to have dioxins, however, a spokesperson for the company say that they only use materials in accordance with the safety criteria.

Trace amounts of glyphosate were found in Corman's Organyc brand of panty liners. Glyphosphate is a pesticide that is found in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller.

The company has made their own tests and confirmed that their organic pantyliners did contain glyphosate but small enough (around 25 nanograms per gram) to not cause any adverse health effects. They are recalling their product off the shelves as the pesticide "should not have been present in organic cotton".

"We don't think it is dangerous, it's simply a precautionary measure, because our priority is the safety and health of our consumers," said a Corman spokeswoman.

There is an ongoing petition to have companies list all the ingredients used in feminine hygiene products. So far, there are almost 190,000 signatures.