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Re: TAMPONS & dioxin
Dear Jon:
I've been watching as this dialogue has continued, and feel I must
chip in my two cent's worth:
I live in a community near the Procter & Gamble/Buckeye, Florida
L.P. dissolving pulp mill near Perry, Florida - stillthe home of Florida's
only industrial river, the Fenholloway, where the mill dumps it's dioxin
laden effluent, and then it flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The Fenholloway
is supposed to be fishable and swimmable now, but I'd bet you wouldn't
want to fish or swim in it. The mill PR folks say that P&G buys only from
the chlorine dioxide line, (to produce its Pamper's, Luv's, Always, etc.)
but the chlorine line is still operating, and SOMEBODY's buying that
chlorine-bleached Buckeye cellulose product - that rayon is made from, as I
understand it.
Now, if you remember, P&G is the company that denied (lied about)
the seriousness of the toxic shock syndrome situation - see Soap Opera, by
Alecia Swazy - and Rely tampons (no longer on the market, thank God). P&G
SAYS it has sold all of its U.S. mills to Weyerhauser, except the one here
where I live, and nobody would buy it, so the company devised a shell game
with a group of it's retired vice presidents to come and "manage" the mill
until the company finally closes it down and blames it on the mill workers,
the market, environmentalists, the community, the news media, etc., when
it's just plain out old, antique, outdated, and used up (and very poisoned,
I might add), and scheduled to be the next Super Superfund site, so the
limited partners can call it bankrupt and the taxpayers (and the poor
shareholder mill workers) will have to pay to fence the place off, because
the pollution is so widespread and so toxic that it can never be cleaned
up. I know these P&G folks pretty well.
Since you know that the rayon for tampons made by those other
companies is being produced somewhere, and since P&G SAYS it only buys
cellulose from the chlorine dioxide line (if you want to believe that) at
this mill, then who is buying the cellulose from the chlorine line??????
Probably P&G and some of its buddies in the tampon business, I'd say. And,
if it's bleached with chlorine, it has dioxin in it, and can probably be
traced back to the mill it came from.
Just to let you know how much dioxin is in the fish downstream from
this mill, in 1986 (they won't test them any more) the EPA tested three
bowfin (mudfish) and found dioxin levels 17,000 times greater than the
EPA's allowable limit back then - they're not supposed to be consumed AT
ALL now. Buckeye says there's "no detect" in the effluent now, I guess not
- but nobody wants to test the fish or the sediment in the river, where
you'd actually find dioxin. And, nobody really wants to test those
products like Pampers, Luv's, Always, Depends, etc., for dioxin, like the
FDA, the EPA, nor the company. Gee, I guess not, they might find it, and
what another public relations fiasco that could become.
Now, not only are the fish contaminated, our drinking water is too
-caused by sink holes in the settlement ponds at the mill - which
contaminate the Floridan Aquifer, the drinking water source for North
Florida. Now, you'd think that some government agency would try to help
you out if your very drinking water were contaminated with pulpmill
effluent, wouldn't you? No, not here.
I'm telling you all this because women (and those who care about
them) everywhere need to know that tampons are made from chlorine-bleached,
dioxin-laden, rayon made from cellulose at one or more pulp mills in the
U.S.
AND THEY ARE NOT SAFE.
There are some tampons now available made from organically grown
cotton. And there are some brands of sanitary napkins made from
non-chlorine bleached pulp. Maybe soon there will be a company that makes
sanitary napkins from non-chlorine bleached cotton. A better alternative
for your health and the environment is organically-grown unbleached cotton
material napkins - like grandma used to make. Wash them and reuse them
thousands of times. Save the trees, save my river, my Gulf of Mexico, my
drinking water. Thank you.
Joy
>I stand corrected regarding rayon. This problem is even worse than I
>thought...
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jackie Hunt Christensen <jchristensen@iatp.org>
>To: jon@cqs.com <jon@cqs.com>
>Cc: dioxin-l@essential.org <dioxin-l@essential.org>
>Date: Monday, October 26, 1998 9:50 AM
>Subject: Re: TAMPONS & dioxin
>
>
>>Unless technology has changed SIGNIFICANTLY since I did pulp & paper work,
>>rayon is HIGHLY bleached in the dissolving pulp process. Yes, dioxin HAS
>>been measured in tampons, although back in the early 90's -- by EPA/FDA.
>>I'm sure it's time to do it again. Years ago, a Norwegian (?) mill was
>>making Cl=free dissolving pulp but i don't know if it ever made its way
>>into tampons.
>>
>>At 01:07 AM 10/25/98 -0400, you wrote:
>>>Hello,
>>>
>>> Please note. Let's expunge that reference to "breeding ground for
>>>dioxin" and replace it "breeding ground for bacteria" which is the
>suspected
>>>cause for Toxic Shock Syndrome. Those silly quotes are getting out of
>hand.
>>>
>>> Also, I don't think anyone has measured dioxin in rayon; what we know
>>>about is dioxin in paper and cotton as a result of the bleaching process.
>>>Why would you bleach rayon??? It has no color except if you purposely add
>>>it.
>>>
>>> Dioxin from bleached tampons (paper and cotton) leaches from the
>tampon
>>>to fatty tissues in the reproductive tract.
>>>
>>> Again, as far as I know there is no rayon/dioxin connection. (Folks,
>>>please inform me if there is...)
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>Jon Campbell
>>>
>>>
>>> There are breeding grounds for dioxin, but not there. They are
>>>incinerators, cement kilns, PVC and organochlorine chemical factories,
>paper
>>>and pulp mills, ...
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: Sgrmagnlia@aol.com <Sgrmagnlia@aol.com>
>>>To: Multiple recipients of list DIOXIN-L <dioxin-l@essential.org>
>>>Date: Friday, October 23, 1998 2:42 PM
>>>Subject: Re: TAMPONS & dioxin
>>>
>>>
>>>>In a message dated 10/21/98 11:53:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>>>>catalyst@envirolink.org writes:
>>>>
>>>><< "Rayon contributes to the danger of tampons and dioxin because it is a
>>>> highly absorbent substance and therefore when fibers from the tampons
>are
>>>> left behind in the vagina (as usually occurs), it creates a breeding
>>>ground
>>>> for the dioxin, and stays in a lot longer than it would with just cotton
>>>> tampons. This is also the reason why TSS (toxic shock syndrome)
>occurs."
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Is there any specific Tampon brand that does not bleach the tampon? Can
>we
>>>>find out who does and who doesn't? Just curious as to what is safe and
>>>what
>>>>isn't!!
>>>>
>>>>Thanks!
>>>>Marianne Dambra
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>----------------------------------------------------------
>>Jackie Hunt Christensen
>>Food Safety Project Director
>>Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
>>2105 1st Avenue South
>>Minneapolis, MN 55404
>>612-870-3424 (direct line)
>>612-870-4846 (fax)
>>e-mail: <jchristensen@iatp.org>
>>IATP main web site: http://www.iatp.org
>>IATP's Endocrine Disrupter Resource Center: http://www.iatp.org/edrc
>>