Period underwear could be toxic. Should it be regulated?
“To restore faith in our category, we need to push for better regulation,” says the CEO of Knix, a Thinx competitor.
It’s been a turbulent start to the year for brands that sell period underwear. In early January, Jessian Choy, a journalist from Sierra magazine, sent samples of period underwear from two brands—Thinx and Lunapads—to a lab at the University of Notre Dame. Choy reported that the Thinx underwear was found to contain a toxic chemical called PFAS in the crotch, while the Lunapads products were free of PFAS. PFAS is associated with all kinds of health problems, including cancer and reproductive problems. In the aftermath of Choy’s story, consumers began to worry that all period underwear, regardless of brand, may be toxic.