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Aquarium director: For ocean health, stop flushing period products

April 1, 2023

Blame shame, convenience or ignorance, but studies show anywhere from half to more than two-thirds of women flush their tampons down the toilet.

Considering the average woman uses around 10,000 tampons in a lifetime, that’s a lot of period products landing in sewer systems.

Plumbers and wastewater experts have long cautioned against flushing anything but toilet paper, since other materials can cause clogs and lead to pricey repairs. Now, with growing awareness about the chemicals and microplastics found in many period products, environment and marine life advocates are adding their voices to a chorus asking folks to ditch the flushing habit.

“The concern for our aquarium is we want to make sure that people are aware that this is sort of a new reality we have to deal with,” said Marissa Wu, programs and operations director for the Roundhouse Aquarium in Manhattan Beach. Wu has made it a personal mission to educate people about the risks and alternatives to flushing period products.

Wu has been at Roundhouse Aquarium since 2016, helping to further the free site’s mission to highlight marine life native to Southern California waters, from sharks to shrimps. The aquarium recently added a display about pollution and how long it takes different materials to biodegrade in the sea. Wu said they’ve been trying to inform visitors how to cut down on waste and single-use products that too often end up in the ocean, an effort that has led her to start researching risks and alternatives to traditional tampons and pads.

A display at Roundhouse Aquarium in Manhattan Beach educates visitors about how long different products take to biodegrade in the ocean. (Photo courtesy of Roundhouse Aquarium)

Marissa Wu, programs and operations director for the Roundhouse Aquarium, shows off marine life on display at the Manhattan Beach site. (Photo courtesy of Roundhouse Aquarium)

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Tampons must go through a review with the Food and Drug Administration before they can be sold in the United States, and experts generally consider those products safe if used as directed. But Wu pointed out that manufacturers aren’t required to list the ingredients of period products, or test results for things like chemicals and microplastics, on their packaging.

“So we’re basically putting something in a very sensitive part of our bodies that we don’t know much about,” she said.

Independent tests have found microplastics not only in wrappers and tampon applicators, but also in some tampon strings and in the tampons and pads themselves. The products otherwise are largely cotton, which is among the crops most heavily treated with pesticides. Some products also have been shown to have other chemicals, compounds and synthetic materials added to mask odors, boost absorbency and increase durability.

Such findings raised concerns for Wu in terms of personal health. And as a marine life expert, she also started to think about what happens when those materials end up in our sewer systems.

Anything flushed down the toilet can end up in oceans and other bodies of water in several ways. If sewers overflow or leak, as happens far too often, those materials end up contaminating local waters. Products like tampons also can hit screens in wastewater systems and sit there for a long time, leaching out whatever is inside of them until they’re cleared out and thrown in landfills. And some sewer systems have grinders to break down such material, which can create pieces of plastic small enough that they make it into the treated wastewater streams that many Southern California plants release into the ocean.

Once there, Wu said, “They take around 500 to 800 years to break down. … And that’s just an estimation. We don’t fully know entirely how long it’s going to take because some of the first plastics that were made are still out there, right? They still exist. So we haven’t lived long enough to have a true estimate of how long it’s going to take.”

The plastics do get smaller and smaller, she noted, with microplastics considered anything less than five millimeters. That debris can get inside algae or plankton, Wu explained. Then fish feed on that plankton, and humans feed on the fish. So yes, bits of those flushed products might eventually end up inside of us.

“And the plastics don’t break down or get passed through the systems,” Wu said. “They just stay there.”

Wu also is worried about how pesticides or other chemicals in period products might affect marine life.

“I had a friend in grad school who was studying at the shark lab over at Cal State Long Beach. She was looking at sting rays and whether toxins that were ingested by the mother were passed on to the pups before being born, through the bloodstream and placenta. So she was majorly concerned as well about feminine products ending up in the ocean.”

The good news, Wu said, is that there are alternatives.

The most basic thing people can do, she said, is to stop flushing any period products down the toilet and, instead, wrap them in toilet paper and deposit them in waste baskets. There’s been progress in making that option more convenient, she noted, with most public facilities now offering lined bins in each stall for safe disposal.

Next, Wu recommends women either consider reusable products, such as period panties or menstrual cups, or look for single-use products that are organic cotton and don’t contain plastics.

“I would encourage women to learn more about the products and learn to trust a brand,” she said.

“It’s a very personal decision, so I encourage people to treat it that way and treat yourselves with respect to make sure that you’re aware of what brands you’re using and what they put in those products. Because, on the one hand, it does affect you. But at the same time it can also help the environment if we’re more conscious about it.”

Unfortunately, reusable and organic products tend to cost substantially more than traditional period products. With reusables, Wu pointed out it’s an upfront investment that can save money over time, like buying a reusable water bottle. But with single-use products, the cost can be twice as high.

That’s why Wu is not currently in favor of any sort of government regulation on the materials used in period products, realizing it might price some lower-income women out of the market. But she would like to see companies list ingredients and test results on packaging, so consumers can at least make more informed decisions.

Then, she said, “For menstruators who can afford to be more conscientious about the environment, and more conscientious about what what is put into their feminine products, make sure they go with the brands that they trust and brands that they agree with, as far as what kind of materials they’re using and putting up against their skin in those very sensitive areas.”

Wu would also like to see more people pressure companies to ditch plastics and other potential pollutants voluntarily, for the good of their consumers and the planet.

‘If enough of us raise our hands ask companies to make things a little bit better,” she said, “maybe they will.”

Orange County Register

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Aquarium director: For ocean health, stop flushing period products

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