[139] in peace2
Re: Evil tampons
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Decerbo)
Thu Mar 16 12:58:22 2000
Message-Id: <200003161757.MAA13821@olympia.bbn.com>
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 16 Mar 2000 12:31:28 EST."
<4.1.20000316121748.009e7660@po10.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 12:57:40 -0500
From: Mike Decerbo <mdecerbo@bbn.com>
Hmm, I did a quick Web search and the results suggest pretty strongly
that the bit about asbestos in tampons is a myth. There is a very
compelling page at
http://www.snopes.com/toxins/tampon.htm
that points out, in part:
> Why wasn't this against the law since asbestos is so dangerous?
> Because the powers that be, in all their wisdom (not), did not consider
> tampons as being ingested, and therefore wasn't illegal or considered
> dangerous.
This claim is ridiculous. The use of asbestos (an incombustible
fibrous material made from magnesium silicate and used for
fireproofing, electrical insulation, and chemical filters) is now
regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the
Environmental Protection Agency because of the health hazards it
poses, and its use in certain products has been banned outright. It is
classified as a known carcinogen, with its "primary routes of
potential human exposure" being "dermal contact [emphasis ours],
inhalation, and ingestion." If the government regulates asbestos use
because it recognizes that asbestos' coming in contact with skin poses
health risks, would it really turn a blind eye towards asbestos-laden
products whose intended use requires that they be inserted into the
body?
What's more, the editor of "Essence" magazine confirmed that she never
ran any article about asbestos in tampons. See
http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/weekly/aa111898.htm
As that page points out, the dioxin controversy is real, but it's
really unfortunate that the chain-letter email muddied the waters with
baloney about asbestos.
For some reason, a lot of urban legends are about consumer products
like, I guess tampons. So I'd say it's always worth doing a little
bit of Web research before forwarding messages like this one to a
mailing list and (potentially) getting a lot of people frightened.
I hope this helps.
Mike Decerbo
