From January 1, 2023, brands of sanitary napkins and tampons will have to list their composition on the packaging.
For the time being, this measure is still at the draft decree stage. For Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health, it will allow “every woman to know what is in her tampon or her towel”, he explained in a press release, reports the Huffington Post.
This is not the only advance in terms of protecting women’s health. The box should also include serious adverse effects that may be related to the use of these sanitary protections.
Finally, precautions for use, in particular to avoid toxic shock syndrome, will also be specified, such as washing your hands before inserting the tampon and after removing it, or even its recommended wearing time depending on the different flows.
Discussions are underway between the Ministry of Health and industry in the sector for the implementation of this decree by 2023 at the latest.
Unclear regulations
Even today, no French law obliges manufacturers to make this information available to users. It is thus very rare to find the list of ingredients contained in tampons and sanitary napkins, which can sometimes hide carcinogenic components or endocrine disruptors.
This having become a social topic in recent years, some brands have detailed the composition of their products and mentioned toxic shock syndrome, a serious infectious disease caused by the misuse of tampons or menstrual cups, on their packaging.