Tucked away in the city of Naples, Florida in 1998, there was a family whose lives were about to be flipped upside down. Robin Danielson was a single mother of two teenage girls with a full life ahead of her. However, at the age of 44, Danielson’s life was cut short due to TSS while using a super absorbent tampon. What she thought was the flu turned out to be something far more deadly. Now, you may be wondering why there is a bill in Congress named after her, the Robin Danielson Act. A year before she passed away, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney from Queens, N.Y. introduced legislation related to tampon safety for the first time with the Tampon Safety and Research Act of 1997.
After being confronted with a question about whether or not tampons are safe, Congresswoman Maloney set out to do extensive research and her findings shocked her. In a 2003 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Maloney says, “The government has done more research on the safety of coffee filters than tampons so for an issue that is so important to women's health, women should be able to rely on independent research, not research funded by tampon manufacturers.”
In an attempt to jump start the bill she introduced, she renamed it the Robin Danielson Feminine Hygiene Product Safety Act. So, what should you know about it? Here are three important things!
The Robin Danielson Act serves to protect women and our health.
This bill would enable research and a better understanding of additives including dioxin, synthetic fibers, chemical fragrances, and other components in feminine hygiene products so that women can make the best choices for themselves and their personal health. How many of us actually know what hides within our feminine hygiene products? Not many! This bill also includes a push to the FDA, encouraging them to broaden their monitoring efforts and publicly disclose a list of contaminants so that we are able to see what is in our products.
2. The bill would make all findings and research available to the public.
Findings and all results of future independent studies would be submitted to Congress,
EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. That means everything would be
available for us to see! Did you know that tampons and pads are considered “medical
devices”? That means companies test them before submitting the results to the FDA as
part of their pre-market approval plan (PMA) documents which aren’t readily available to
us consumers. This information we deserve to know!
3. The bill still has not been passed.
As previously stated, this bill was first introduced in 1997, but as of 2017 this bill has not
yet been passed! The bill has been brought to Congress nine times and still with all of
Congresswoman Maloney’s research, it has not yet been passed.
As important as it is to know these things, there are still women who have no idea about this bill. By spreading this information, you can do your part in bringing light to the issues that directly affect your health!
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