Speaking up for the right to safe sanitary pads |
By Kim-Shin Hyo-Jeong
Published Sept. 26, 2017
Translated by Marilyn
Hook
※
Editor’s note: Article author Kim-Shin Hyo-Jeong is a feminist researcher and
activist.
Where are the safe sanitary pads?
I want to burn sanitary pads. I want to go to Gwanghwamun Square and burn
the thousands of sanitary pads I’ve used in my life. (Though if I really did
that, I’d have to pay a 5-million-won fine for arson.)
I’ve always been told that the reason for the stomach and back discomfort and
terrible uterine pain I’ve had is unknowable. Because the source was unknown, I
blamed myself. I told myself I was in pain because I ate meat, ate dairy and
flour products, drank alcohol, worked late, didn’t exercise. Despite the
monthly pain that made me want to have my uterus removed, all I did was get
slightly stronger painkillers and try to bear it. It didn’t occur to me that my
menstrual pain could be caused by the sanitary pads that I carefully chose and
bought at a discount.
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| At the Korean Women’s Environmental Network(KWEN)’s “Press Conference for a Thorough Investigation into the Side Effects of Disposable Sanitary Pads” on August 24th. ⓒ KWEN |
I’m so angry that I’ve been living deprived of my right as a consumer to
know what goes into sanitary pads and which sanitary pads are safe. It’s been
six months since the presence of toxic materials in sanitary pads was revealed,
but we still don’t have the necessary safety information.
I want to buy the sanitary pads said to be safe, even though they’re
two-to-three times more expensive, but they’re always sold out. Orders for
cotton sanitary pads have become so backed up that they say that one placed now
won’t be filled until next year. When my period starts, I wonder what product I
can use to minimize the danger, but I can’t find the answer. With no other
choice, I choose the problematic disposable sanitary pads again. Wearing them,
I feel uncomfortable. I wonder what chemicals are in them and what will happen
if they enter my body, and I’m plagued by anxiety when my lower abdomen starts
to cramp up.
Are menstrual cups and cloth pads good alternatives?
Menstrual cups’ and cloth pads’ popularity as alternatives has shot up,
but when I went to buy some, I found that they aren’t cheap. And they’re
difficult to use. I watched a YouTube video on how to use menstrual cups, and
then I watched it again, but I still couldn’t get it. Menstrual cups are
expensive, and you need to buy one that’s a good fit for your body if you want
it to work right. You need to know the length of your cervix, but I’m not sure
how you could go about measuring that.
What’s more, cups and cloth pads are completely impractical for people who
don’t have their own bathroom and, in pads’ case, a space that gets sunlight to
dry them. That means they’re off the table for people who live in goshiwon [a form of housing that usually
involves sharing a bathroom] or half-basement apartments, or who have
roommates. Menstrual cups are also out of the question for many women with
disabilities.
Also, for women who spend all day doing paid labor, the care involved in
cleaning cloth pads is a burdensome addition to their housework. We need
disposable pads that are safe (for us and
the environment).
I also hear that it’s been two months since the government supply of free
menstrual pads provided to low-income teenage girls has run out in the wake of
the controversy. These girls, who were using shoe inserts as menstrual pads
before that program was created – what do you think they’re using now?
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| Sept. 5, in front of the Government Complex-Seoul. After its press conference, KWEN led a performance enitled “My Body Is Evidence – Test Me”, which called for a full examination of toxins in menstrual pads and an epidemiological investigation. ⓒ KWEN |
Whom does the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety serve?
When the controversy became uncontainable, the Ministry of Food and Drug
Safety (MFDA) finally started an investigation of 86 types of volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) in 896 menstrual pad products made by 56 companies and sold in South
Korea. For reference, one menstrual pad is said to contain traces of around 200
types of chemicals.
The MFDA announced today that it would reveal the results of an
investigation of 10 VOCs by the end of September, and results regarding the
other 76 by the end of the year. But I’m already suspicious of the results, not
only because the MFDA’s foot-dragging has made it difficult to trust, but also
because its investigation will not check for toxic chemicals other than VOCs,
such as dioxins, heavy metals, residual pesticides, and artificial fragrances.
And that’s not all. The MFDA’s “Menstrual Pad Safety Investigation
Committee” doesn’t include a single expert on women’s or environmental issues.
Some of the committee’s meetings have been conducted in private, and a list of
its members has not been provided. Taken altogether, these facts convince me
that the MFDA is ultimately indifferent to public safety. You have to ask - if
the MFDA is not on citizens’ side, whose side is it on?
National inspection targeting not menstrual pads but women’s groups?
Meanwhile, further controversy has arisen as Liberty Korea Party
assemblyman Kim Sang-hoon (West Daegu district) of the National Assembly’s
Health and Welfare Committee has called the Korean Women’s Environmental
Network (KWEN) in for a state affairs audit to accuse it of having a special
relationship with a particular menstrual products firm.
KWEN is a women’s organization that has been promoting women’s health
rights by publicizing the issue of menstrual pad safety in March, collecting
more than 3,000 stories of the harm caused by menstrual pads, etc. But what
does it mean that the state affairs audit focuses not on securing the safety of
menstrual products but on challenging the women’s organization that has brought
the issue of toxic menstrual pads to light?
The Liberty Korea Party’s actions are fishy. They’re conducting a classic witch
hunt against the women who dare to speak out about unbearable pain and
society’s institutional discrimination. I want to ask Assemblyman Kim: “And
menstrual pads? What are you going to do about them? What are you going to do
about the toxic menstrual pads that firms have made hundreds of billions of won
selling over the past decades?”
Women, who find blood flowing from themselves once a month at
unpredictable times and places, need menstrual products. Shouldn’t the most
important item on the government’s agenda be how to make these products safe? Shouldn’t
they call all of these firms that have made money putting women’s bodies at
risk to the National Assembly for questioning? The National Assembly should
investigate the corrupt relationship between the Liberty Korea Party and
menstrual products firms.
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| A press conference led by KWEN in Gwanghwamun Square on May 26 in honor of Menstrual Hygiene Day. ⓒ Fireworks Femi-Action |
The women’s health revolution begins
A country that doesn’t have safe menstrual products, prohibits abortion,
and pressures women to have children: this is the reality of South Korea that
women are now fighting against with their bodies. It is also the true face of
the state and of capital. How long do
women have to live with nameless pain and fear? My body has already suffered
too much to wait quietly for someone to make safe menstrual products.
We have to burn the menstrual pads in our bathroom drawers. And let’s
reclaim the right to use menstrual products that are safe for our bodies and
for the sustainability of the environment. The revolution for women’s health
has already begun, and will continue until the day when women can menstruate
without worry.
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Link to a [Korean-language] Blue House citizens’ petition started by
Menstruating Women calling for a total investigation of toxins in menstrual
products and a bodily epidemiological investigation: http://bit.ly/2wQZVYD
*Original article:
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