Nic Corcrain 2025 - lead leaching from menstrual products in simulated vaginal fluid

Nic Corcrain’s research poster reports a small C-tier menstrual-product leaching experiment and a participant survey. The occurrence-relevant result is that tampons released lead into synthetic vaginal fluid at 0.66-6.35 ppb, while menstrual cups were reported as <1 ppb. Arsenic was targeted, but the poster says arsenic detection was compromised by background contamination, so no arsenic occurrence value is recorded.

Key numbers

• Product testing: four menstrual products were incubated in synthetic vaginal fluid and analyzed for Pb and As leaching at 3, 5, and 7 hours using ICP-MS.
• Lead leaching: the poster states that tampons released substantially more lead (0.66-6.35 ppb) than menstrual cups (<1 ppb), with levels plateauing over time.
• Arsenic: the ICP-MS procedure showed high precision and sensitivity for lead, but arsenic detection was “compromised by background contamination”; no arsenic concentration is therefore usable as occurrence evidence.
• Physical observations: all menstrual products dissolved cleanly in simulated vaginal fluid, maintaining stable pH with no visible precipitates except faint cloudiness in one tampon replicate.
• Survey frame: 147 participants were surveyed; the visible age-group table lists 101 respondents aged 18-24, 22 aged 25-34, 2 aged 35-44, and 4 aged 45-55, which sums to 129, so the table appears to be a displayed subset or incomplete rendering relative to the poster’s 147 text.
• Symptom survey context: symptom burden was higher among tampon users (M = 5.1) than pad users (M = 4.3) and period-underwear users (M = 3.2); this is survey context, not product occurrence data.
• Diagnosis-likelihood context: the poster states that when tampon use was combined with early menarche, diagnosis likelihood rose to 64%; this is not used as a product concentration value.

Methods (brief)

The poster reports two approaches: a survey of menstruating individuals ages 18-55 across multiple countries, and laboratory incubation of four menstrual products in synthetic vaginal fluid. Lead and arsenic were analyzed by ICP-MS at 3, 5, and 7 hours. The poster references an unpublished undergraduate research report for the laboratory results.

Implications

Certification (HMTc): This source is a small, unpublished C-tier leaching signal for menstrual products. It is not suitable for standards pooling without the underlying report, but it documents a lead-leaching range for tampons under simulated vaginal-fluid conditions.

Courses: The poster is useful for teaching how to separate a measurable occurrence value (Pb 0.66-6.35 ppb) from a targeted but unusable value (arsenic compromised by background contamination).

App: The source can support a low-confidence note that menstrual-product exposure literature is moving from total content toward simulated-fluid leaching, while keeping the C-tier status clear.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• menstrual-tampons
• menstrual-cups
• menstrual-pads
• period-underwear-reusable-garments

Verification notes

• PDF text was extracted with pdftotext -layout to /tmp/hmi_row_1570.txt; because the source is a one-page poster, the full extracted text was re-read.
• Identity checks before creation: the candidate cite key nic-corcrain2025-menstrual-products-metal-leaching, raw handle MFK_f1000research-777517, raw SHA-256 ecfc4d7e696181419f88b9be66bdb36cd880de7b26a1f2c973e184882c741dce, and title phrase were searched in wiki/sources/ and evidence files; no existing source page was found.
• The intake CSV DOI 10.3390/pathogens11060618 belongs to a cited Pathogens article on vaginal mucosa, not to this poster; the poster itself has no DOI in the extracted text or PDF metadata.
• Units are preserved as ppb; no conversion to µg/L was made.
• Speciation: arsenic is listed as a target analyte but no arsenic number is used because the poster reports background contamination.
• Brand firewall: the poster states brand-dependent differences but does not print brand names in the extracted text; no brand names are attached to values.

Page history

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