Archer et al. 2005 - dioxins and furans in tampons

Archer et al. measured dioxins and furans in tampon samples purchased online or from retail stores. The analytes are PCDD/PCDF congeners, not heavy metals; this page is therefore tampon contaminant context and not a metals occurrence source. The paper reports anonymous brand codes, but this wiki page uses only aggregate and product-form wording under the brand firewall.

Key numbers

The study included seven brands of tampons varying from rayon-cotton blends to 100% cotton. For each brand, the researchers purchased two lots of Regular absorbency and two lots of the highest absorbency; Regular absorbency was defined as 6-9 g absorbency per tampon and SuperPlus as 12-15 g absorbency per tampon. Approximately 10 g of each lot was extracted in duplicate, producing four data points for each brand-absorbency group.

The analytical panel was the 17 2,3,7,8-chlorine-containing dioxin and furan congeners. The paper calculated total toxic equivalence (TEQ) for each sample using World Health Organization toxic equivalency factor values. Its abstract states that calculated sample TEQs were not statistically different from TEQs calculated using average LOD values.

The method-detection-limit study used five replicate samples. The MDL study total TEQ was 0.125 pg/g tampon. A total TEQ of 0.0145 pg/g was derived from LODs calculated as average detectable amounts from all blank data. Most detected quantities were at or near detection-limit values.

The figures show detectable concentrations for all seven Regular-absorbency brand groups and for five SuperPlus-absorbency brand groups, but the text emphasizes that most dioxins and furans were below the detection limit or estimated detection limits. The authors report that only one SuperPlus product group had 2,3,7,8-TCDF levels considered statistically significant at the 99% level. The corresponding Regular absorbency group did not reject the null hypothesis at 99%; the text says it would reject at 95%, indicating possible observable significance.

Several brand-absorbency groups had HpCDD and OCDD levels significantly greater than the blank average. The largest mass contribution in each case was from the OCDD congener. Follow-up duplicate analysis of two additional production lots for the product group with reportable 2,3,7,8-TCDF decreased the SuperPlus average from 0.19 to 0.13 pg/g, which remained statistically significant at 99%. The corresponding Regular group average decreased from 0.055 pg/g to 0.028 pg/g and was not reportable.

In the conclusion, the authors use a worst-case total-absorption calculation for the SuperPlus group with the highest reportable signal. Including detection limits, the TEQ was 0.045 pg/g, or roughly 0.225 pg/tampon. Assuming 24 tampons per month and a 50-kg test case, the projected exposure was 5.4 pg/month or 0.108 pg/kg body weight/month. The paper states that this is <0.2% of the JECFA provisional tolerable monthly intake of 70 pg/kg body weight per month total equivalence.

Methods (brief)

Tampons were cut into strips after outer wrappers and applicators were removed. Samples were spiked with 15 of the 17 2,3,7,8-chlorine-containing C13 congeners for direct isotope-dilution analysis similar to EPA Method 1613 Revision B. Samples were Soxhlet extracted for 18-24 hours using a 1:1 hexane:methylene chloride solvent mixture, cleaned with multilayer silica gel and alumina columns, and in some cases received additional carbon cleanup. Extracts were analyzed by GC/HRMS on a Micromass AutoSpec Ultima at 10,000 mass resolution. The study used MDLs, sample-specific EDLs, blank LODs, and hypothesis testing at the 99% level.

Implications

Certification: This source contributes no heavy-metal occurrence values and should not move any HMTc metal threshold. It is primary tampon contaminant context for PCDD/PCDF dioxins and furans.

Courses: The paper is useful for teaching how near-detection-limit contaminant data are handled with MDLs, EDLs, blank LODs, isotope dilution, and hypothesis testing.

App: The source can support a tampon contaminant context note that FDA-supported testing found most dioxins/furans below detection limits or EDLs, with one SuperPlus product group driving the reportable worst-case exposure calculation.

Microbiome: Not measured. The paper discusses endometriosis and dioxin exposure motivation, but it does not measure vaginal microbiome, bacterial, or toxic-shock endpoints.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• menstrual-tampons

Verification notes

Identity checks before drafting found no existing wiki/sources/ hit for raw handle MFK_paper-27-archer-2005-dioxins-tampons, cite key archer2005-tampon-dioxins-furans, or exact title. No DOI is printed in the extracted PDF text, so doi: null is retained rather than guessed. The PDF SHA-256 is 64b1ac4b923a438bb8618d95ea05bf5d17741f07936a4bc500fdbecd05f4a4bd. The first page, Methods, Results/Discussion, Follow-up, and Conclusions were re-opened from /tmp/hmi-fem-018.txt; units are preserved without conversion. The figure images contain brand-code concentration bars, but this page reports only text-supported aggregate and product-form findings to avoid brand-coded value presentation. metals: [] is intentional: the analytes are dioxins/furans, not Pb, Cd, As, Hg, Cr, Sn, organotin, or other HMT metal species. The source’s JECFA comparison is quoted as the authors’ own exposure-context statement, not converted into an HMTc threshold.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.