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Heath Facts |
Menstruation is a natural and healthy process. So why are we so hung up on the issue? Why, for so many, is it so associated with pain and negativity, surrounded by silence and secrecy? What effect does this culture of silence have in terms of our choice of sanitary protection and its implications for health and the environment? The average woman in the western world uses about 12,000 sanitary products during her life. In the UK we buy more than three billion disposable sanitary items every year; in 2001 we spent £370 million on them!!! Four million tampons and pads are flushed away every day in the UK, adding to marine pollution. It takes a tampon six months to biodegrade, a plastic sanitary towel liner lasts indefinitely. Flushing sanitary protection causes 75% of blocked drains. Then there's the issue of the manufacture of 'disposable' products-despite being white disposable sanitary products are NOT sterile!!
Tampons are made from either cotton, or a mixture of cotton and rayon. Use of cotton of course raises issues of fair trade, pesticide use and genetic modification. Rayon is chemically processed from wood pulp. Disposable sanitary towels and panty liners are also made mostly from wood pulp, bleached from its natural brown colour. Chlorine gas was originally the bleaching agent used, and was a source of dioxin, which is a known carcinogen-due to lots of campaigning from The Women’s Environmental Network they now use either chlorine dioxide or hydrogen peroxide. As a result of this and reduced use of chlorine in other processes, dioxin levels in the environment are tending to fall. Dioxins released during chlorine bleaching and plastics manufacture have been shown to cause cancer, miscarriages and damage to the immune system and toxic shock syndrome.
Moon Times are hand made with cotton flannelette and fair trade organic cotton and liners are available in organic hemp. Flannelette is both soft and absorbent and used as the ‘top’ layer- next to your skin. The organic hemp and cotton are used as ‘liners and ‘bottom’ layers. You put a liner inside the pocket of the pad (or a few if you are bleeding heavily) choosing cotton, hemp or (recycled) toweling liners. Pads have wings- so they are very secure!
They are an ideal gift for young women new to their menses and for new mothers who need soft cloth against their delicate tissue after giving birth.
There are 2 colour themes- plain (white or pastel colours) and patterned* (bright or pastel prints of flowers, stars, moons etc *dependant on what is available) When you first use Moon Times, it may seem as if your flow is heavier than usual- this is natural- I believe that some of the chemicals used in other sanitary products can affect the amount we bleed-also we may not be used to seeing our blood that closely!
