Read the Dickinson report comparing tampons and pads
Read more about menstrual
products safety
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"Are Vaginal
Tampons Prejudicial to Health?"
(Proof for a British Tampax ad, 1952)
Tampons didn't really take hold
anywhere - but especially in Europe -
until after World War II, and there
only in the 1950s. (The museum does
have a box of Tampax in French
inscribed by a Tambrands hand to the
late 1930s.)
Part of the reason was concern about
its safety - a concern we have today.
The "Dickinson
Report," of 1945, addressed some
of these concerns and supported tampon
use. But since then problems Dr.
Dickinson probably never dreamed of
have surfaced, such as cancer-causing
dioxin and the tendency of certain
fibers to encourage bacterial growth -
especially that of Staphylococcus
aureus, which causes toxic shock
syndrome (TSS) when in large
quantities (read more in the Rely tampon
discussion).
Tampax, just as other companies did
and still do, commissioned studies of
its products, and I believe this ad
shows the results of one such study.
Because of the technical language and
subject matter and because of the
offer of "professional" samples (at
the bottom), the
ad
probably appeared in a medical
journal, showing that tampon
companies had to overcome resistance
in the medical community.
By the way, questions of safety are
best answered by proposals such as
that of Rep. Carolyn Maloney (the Tampon Safety and
Research Act of 1999), who
represents part of New York City in
the U. S. House of Representatives. We
need thorough studies of the safety of
tampons, pads, cups and other
menstrual products conducted by people
not associated with any company. Male
embarrassment in the House and scorn
for women - how long did it take to
get health research aimed at women? -
threaten to sink such efforts. And
companies lobby furiously to kill them
because some of them will lose
business.
Read Dr.
Philip Tierno's comments on the dioxin,
asbestos and TSS questions recently
raised, especially over the
Internet.
Tambrands, former maker of the
Tampax tampon, generously gave this
proof to this museum.
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The
proof, below, actually has very wide
margins - which I trimmed - in order
to give space for comments and
corrections before the final version
is sent to the magazine for
printing.
Below the proof are enlargements
of the text.
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Below
are enlargements of the text.
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The above appears
in the lower left corner.
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© 2000 Harry Finley. It is illegal
to reproduce or distribute work on
this Web site in any manner or medium
without written permission of
the author. Please report suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org
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