More women push for detailed labels on feminine care products

The list of ingredients on a box of tampons is typically brief, including a shortlist of materials the product 'may contain.” And menstrual pads often don't come with any ingredient disclosures on the package.

Now, advocates concerned about exposure to potentially toxic pesticide residues or other additives or byproducts are pushing for greater transparency and safety testing of components that make up feminine care products.

Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., has introduced the Menstrual Products Right to Know Act, which would require companies to provide a detailed list of ingredients on menstrual products. And a bill reintroduced by Rep Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., would direct the National Institutes of Health to conduct research to determine whether chemicals used in feminine hygiene products present health risks, including links to cancer or infertility.

'We want to make sure that women know what is in these products, which actually have the closest contact with our bodies,” Meng said.

The vast majority of women in the United States wear pads or tampons every month for decades of their lives. The vagina contains some of the most sensitive and absorbent tissue in the body and has a dense concentration of blood vessels that can enable transfer of chemicals into the circulatory system, properties that advocates say bolster the need for higher safety precautions and disclosure requirements for menstrual care products.

Meng's bill is part of a larger wave of activism around decreasing the stigma of menstruation, making menstrual products more affordable and accessible to poor or vulnerable women, and improving women's health and safety.

In recent years, two dozen states or jurisdictions have introduced bills to eliminate the sales tax on menstrual products, and four states and the District of Columbia have approved them. Campaigns to provide menstrual products free to women in public schools or homeless shelters or detention facilities are taking off in cities around the country.

The bill also reflects a generation of more critical consumers, according to Ashley Orgain, director of mission advocacy and engagement for Seventh Generation, a company that produces menstrual products made from organic cotton.

'We are seeing the rise of the conscious consumer, the millennial consumer that has grown up more aware of the environmental impacts we are facing as a society,” Orgain said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies tampons and pads as medical devices. Unlike with food and drugs, the regulator does not require manufacturers to list individual ingredients.