The recent research out of UC Berkeley found that many tampons on the market, including organic and non-organic, may contain toxic metals, such as lead and arsenic. The researchers looked at tampons sold both in the United States and Europe.

“Some tampons had higher concentrations of one metal, lower concentrations of another,” Jenni A. Shearston, Ph.D., the lead author on the paper, tells TODAY.com. “There wasn’t a specific tampon that we tested that seemed to have ... a lower concentration of all the metals.” 

Shearston — a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley School of Public Health and department of environmental science, policy and management — adds that one of the limitations of the study is that they do not know if the metal can seep out of the tampons.

“We only tested whether or not these metals are present in tampons,” she says. “We don’t know whether they come out.”

In response to these findings, the Democratic Women's Caucus sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urging investigation into the safety of tampons in early September 2024.

“The FDA must review and improve the current safety standards for tampons," the lawmakers, which includes U.S. representatives Summer Lee, Grace Meng, Kathy Manning  and Ayanna Pressley, wrote in their letter.