What You Need To Know About Titanium Dioxide in Pads and Tampons

“Titanium dioxide is the naturally occurring compound created when titanium reacts with oxygen within the air,” explains endocrinologist and advisor at reproductive-health firm Natalist Aimee Eyvazzadeh, MD. “As an oxide, titanium is present in minerals within the earth’s crust and can also be discovered with different parts, together with calcium and iron.”

The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised titanium dioxide for human consumption in 1966, cementing its presence in a wide range of meals, together with candies and different processed meals. It is primarily used to assist make white meals seem whiter (like milk and sweet) or to elongate the shelf lifetime of meals which can be delicate to UV gentle. (The FDA says that producers can have not more than 1 % TiO2 in meals.)

Nevertheless, bother arose for the ingredient in 2021 when the European Meals Security Authority (EFSA) issued a press release that titanium dioxide “might not be thought of secure” as a meals additive. In its report, the EFSA reported that they could not rule out the likelihood that titanium dioxide induced injury to DNA (“genotoxicity”)—and thus could not set up a secure degree of each day consumption. This discovering prompted the European Union to ban TiO2 as a meals additive earlier this yr, however within the U.S., the ingredient remains to be thought of to be secure in meals on the limits set by the FDA.

Nevertheless, titanium dioxide is not only a common ingredient in meals. It additionally seems in sunscreen and cosmetics, two classes during which the ingredient can also be usually thought of secure. It is also is usually used to make issues like paint, and most related for our functions, it is used to make pads and tampons seem whiter. 

It is unclear precisely what number of manufacturers use TiO2 of their menstrual merchandise. The FDA classifies tampons and pads as medical gadgets, and thus producers of those merchandise are really useful, however not required, to checklist their elements. (That is slowly altering after New York handed a legislation requiring elements lists on menstrual merchandise bought within the state). That mentioned, well-known manufacturers like Tampax and L. embrace TiO2 of their merchandise, whereas manufacturers like Rael, Cora, and The Honey Pot at present shouldn’t have this ingredient of their pads or tampons.

So the million-dollar query: is it secure to have titanium dioxide in pads and tampons? Under, Dr. Eyvazzadeh and Erin Flynn, MPH, DNP/FNP, an LGBTQ+ care knowledgeable with contraception startup Favor, share the sophisticated fact behind this query. Simply keep in mind: When you have any particular well being considerations to weigh, it is vital to achieve out to your gynecologist or main care doctor to make the suitable alternative for you.

What are the potential hostile well being results of titanium dioxide?

One of many tough issues about titanium dioxide is that it may be consumed in a myriad of the way, making threat calculation troublesome. “The potential dangers of titanium dioxide differ relying on the strategy of publicity,” says Dr. Eyvazzadeh. Inhaling titanium dioxide whilst you’re portray a room or engaged on a building web site, for instance, might irritate the eyes, nostril, and throat. However there’s not a lot analysis to inform us what the potential results are of TiO2 in sure different codecs,  like should you eat a little bit little bit of it in meals, or usually insert small quantities of it in your physique by way of a tampon for just a few days every month.

“There isn’t any revealed analysis accessible at present that has examined the impacts of vaginal or vulvar publicity to titanium dioxide.” —Aimee Eyvazzadeh, MD

There is some proof to recommend that titanium dioxide might have a carcinogenic impact in some codecs. “[TiO2] might trigger most cancers based mostly on research finished on animals, and it has been related to lung most cancers when inhaled,” says Dr. Eyvazzadeh, which is why the federal government units limits on publicity for employees. Different human research, nonetheless, haven’t discovered any clear hyperlink between lung most cancers and titanium dioxide. And there truthfully is not a ton of dependable knowledge on the ingredient to assist us draw higher conclusions, argues the authors of this 2011 overview.

There’s additionally a little bit little bit of proof to recommend that the widespread ingredient could also be an endocrine disruptor, says Flynn—which means it could have an effect on an individual’s hormonal system. “[P]revious research have proven that titanium dioxide may cause alterations to the reproductive system, together with lowering the ovarian follicles and resulting in the formation of ovarian cysts,” she says. Nevertheless, these research have been performed on mice who orally consumed titanium dioxide, so we’ll nonetheless want in depth scientific analysis on people earlier than we are able to definitively hyperlink TiO2 with reproductive disruption—or assume these dangers undoubtedly come from different intakes of the ingredient.

As for the potential dangers (or lack thereof!) of utilizing pads and tampons with titanium dioxide…we simply do not know for sure. “There isn’t any revealed analysis accessible at present that has examined the impacts of vaginal or vulvar publicity to titanium dioxide,” Dr. Eyvazzadeh. “However whereas no examine has positively linked titanium dioxide publicity to ovarian most cancers, miscarriages, or UTIs, we additionally don’t have the science to guarantee us that this sort of publicity is completely secure both.” This lack of knowledge is extremely irritating, on condition that 26 % of the worldwide inhabitants are of reproductive age and presumably utilizing pads and tampons on the common to handle their cycles.

What this implies for the titanium dioxide present in menstrual merchandise—and methods to make a aware buying choice subsequent time you fill up

As a result of there’s so little conclusive analysis on the potential results of titanium dioxide, you are not going to search out clear, concise steerage for tampon buying by finding out up. So what do you do as an alternative?

Some consultants say that there is no must lose sleep over having titanium dioxide in tampons. “If this worries you, then do not use merchandise which have this,” Jennifer Lincoln, MD, shared in a video. “Nevertheless it’s the dose, it is the route that makes the ‘poison,’ and so simply because one thing would possibly trigger lung most cancers, for instance, doesn’t suggest it should trigger a problem in a tampon.”

Dr. Eyvazzadeh and Flynn agree that it is okay to method the ingredient with warning. “In the event you really feel uncomfortable with the potential dangers related to titanium dioxide, search for merchandise that don’t embrace titanium dioxide on the elements checklist,” says Flynn. “Whereas most beauty merchandise will disclose whether or not or not titanium dioxide is an ingredient—some states require it—you will need to observe that the FDA doesn’t at present require manufacturers to reveal this info.”

Happily, many new wave period-care corporations are extraordinarily clear about their elements lists. In consequence, it isn’t too troublesome to buy TiO2-free tampons should you’re involved—and have the monetary means to take action. It is also value being skeptical of any definitive claims that titanium dioxide in tampons is tremendous dangerous. As Dr. Eyvazzadeh factors out, we simply do not know both means—regardless of how sure Becky on TikTok appears.