Could they not just made chemical free?
In: Other
Cotton is a natural fiber. Cotton plants grown in contaminated soil can uptake (some of) those contaminants, some of which may end up in the cotton itself.
Additionally, contaminants may be introduced during processing. But I think most of the recent news about heavy metals is from the cotton fiber itself, not the processing.
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First off – everything is a chemical. Cotton is made of chemicals. What you’re thinking of is a subset of “bad chemicals”, which is itself not necessarily a clear boundary – whether something is actually dangerous is not certain, and depends on quantity, form, etc.
Second, tampons are not just a piece of cotton. They have a plastic component for the applicator, which is in contact with the cotton, and therefore substances can leach from the plastic into the cotton. They are stored in a plastic wrapper, with the same issue. The cotton may be whitened, treated with antibiotic or cleaning agents for sterilization, etc. – all of that would potentially leave a chemical residue.
Third, tampons are not created in a perfectly clean environment. There may be contaminants in the factory, they may be processed by machines that also process other things, and so on.
Generally, most things in the world are a mix of a bunch of substances. Keeping substances from mixing is really, really hard, and it’s the subject of a ton of research and technological advances over time; we’ve gotten better at a lot of it (sterile packaging for medicine and such), but it’s not perfect; and the closer you want to get to “perfect”, the more expensive it is. So it’s never the *default*.
Where can a gal these days find a nice natural Cherokee hair tampon?
What chemicals do they have in them?
The top countries that produce cotton are:
* India: 6.1 million tons.
* China: 5.5 million tons.
* US: 4.1 million tons.
* Brazil: 1.9 million tons.
* Pakistan: 1.7 million tons.
If I had to guess, I’d say the contaminants found in tampons come from the chemical processing the cotton is subjected to during manufacturing. It could also come from contaminants in the soil where the cotton is grown.
Edit: here’s a [How It’s Made](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHgNoSYlhYs) episode on Cotton processing
Edit 2: Samples are taken from each bale and submitted to the USDA for testing. Either they did not do their due diligence with the testing, or dropped the ball in some other way.
Just cause something has a chemical doesn’t automatically mean it’s bad, chemicals are used for various purposes and people need to get over their fear of “OMG it’s a chemical it’s gonna kill me and give me cancer!”
Your own body has various “chemicals” that if used in other ways would be lethal, such as hydrochloric acid.
Did you know that cyanide gas has hydrogen in it? Did you ALSO know that in liberal cities, the tap water has TWICE the amount of hydrogen than any other element??
They WANT chemicals in your water to get into your children! You wouldn’t get your kids cyanide gas, but you think drinking liberal chemical water is OK??!?
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Why do cigarettes have so many bad chemicals in them if it’s just tobacco? Nicotine isn’t even proven to be a carcinogen
I have worked in bleaching facilities.
Whew, you don’t wanna smoke paper. I bet that the paper in cigarettes is worse than the actual tobacco.
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