tampon

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Group Offers to Repay Tax on Period Products

Brands including DIVA promise payments within 48 hours

(Newser) - Keep your receipt when buying menstrual products as it could save you a bit of cash. Eight makers of period products have formed a coalition promising to repay the sales tax charged to customers in US states that don't consider such products essential. The Tampon Tax Back Coalition, made...

Scotland's 'Period Poverty' Law Comes Into Force

Authorities are legally obliged to provide products to anybody who needs them

(Newser) - Like many places, Scotland is experiencing a severe cost-of-living crisis. But unlike anywhere else, local authorities are now legally required to provide tampons and other period products free of charge to anybody who needs them. The Period Products Act, which passed the Scottish Parliament in a unanimous vote in 2020,...

Amy Schumer: Don't Blame Me for Tampon Shortage

Supply chain issues have caused shortages, price hikes

(Newser) - American women are facing a serious shortage of tampons—and Amy Schumer wants people to know that it's not her fault. When Tampax was asked about shortages, the company said a successful ad campaign starring the comedian had led to an explosion in retail demand since 2020, though other...

Prison Worker: I Wore Tampon, Was Fired for 'Smuggling'

Joyce Flores says guards monitoring body cameras mistook the product for contraband

(Newser) - A former employee at a Virginia prison says she put in a tampon and headed to work—and for that, she was fired. In a sex discrimination lawsuit, dental hygienist Joyce Flores, 48, says she was interrogated for hours at Augusta Correctional Center on July 17, 2019, after a body...

Women Can Finally Bring Tampons to Texas Bar Exam

Welcome to the 21st century, Lone Star state

(Newser) - Aspiring lawyers in Texas now have the 19th-century privilege of bringing tampons and pads to their bar exam, which is administered over several hours-long sessions. The Texas Board of Law Examiners has retracted its ban on feminine hygiene products after discrimination complaints. Executive Director Susan Henricks said the ban was...

No More 'Feminine Hygiene' Products in This Supermarket

NZ's Countdown chain will drop euphemisms, just use 'period' for tampons, pads, and menstrual cups

(Newser) - New Zealand shoppers annoyed at tap-dancing around the word "period" on menstrual products may want to start doing their shopping at Countdown: The Guardian reports that the supermarket chain will be nixing euphemistic terms such as "sanitary" and "feminine hygiene" on products like tampons, pads, and menstrual...

Nevada Ditches the 'Pink Tax'
Nevada Ditches the 'Pink Tax'

Nevada Ditches the 'Pink Tax'

Eliminates sales tax on menstrual products

(Newser) - No more "pink tax" in Nevada: Voters on Tuesday amended the state's 1955 tax act to remove the sales and storage tax on menstrual products. Feminine hygiene products are already exempt from sales taxes in nine other states and the District of Columbia, and in an additional five...

An 'Abrupt About-Face' for Va. Prison Ban on Tampons

Tampon, menstrual cup ban for inmate visitors has been suspended—for the moment

(Newser) - Virginia is suspending a newly introduced policy that would have barred women who visit inmates at state prisons from using tampons or menstrual cups. Secretary of Public and Homeland Security Safety Brian Moran said Tuesday on Twitter that he'd ordered an "immediate suspension until further review." The...

Va. Prisons Issue New Rule on Feminine Hygiene Products

Female visitors will be banned from using tampons

(Newser) - Women who visit inmates at Virginia prisons will be barred from wearing tampons or menstrual cups under a new policy stemming from concerns about contraband, the state Department of Corrections said Monday. A spokeswoman said the policy is aimed at preventing contraband like drugs from being smuggled into prisons. "...

Students In This Country Get Tampons for Free

'After all periods are not exempt from poverty,' official says

(Newser) - Good news for female students in Scotland: All your pads and tampons will now be free, the Guardian reports. The Scottish government has allocated $6.7 million to pay for the sanitary products of some 395,000 school, college, and university students—an effort to banish what's called "...

Teen Went to Sleep on a School Trip. She Never Woke Up

16-year-old Sara Manitoski died from toxic shock syndrome in March 2017, coroner finds

(Newser) - An overnight school trip last year turned tragic for a Canadian teen, and now a coroner has confirmed why. People reports 16-year-old Sara Manitoski, who was found unresponsive in her cabin bed after friends came back from breakfast, died of toxic shock syndrome, with the coroner's conclusion based on...

Toxic Shock Syndrome Took Her Leg. She'll Lose the Other

Model Lauren Wasser spreads the word about Toxic Shock Syndrome

(Newser) - Model Lauren Wasser believes she'll be able to run without pain again—just as soon as doctors amputate her left leg. It's a brutal surgery she's already undergone once, on her right leg, after developing toxic shock syndrome from a tampon in October 2012. The Washington Post ...

Mom, Daughter Buy Tampons and 'Smash the Patriarchy'

Text conversation during Walmart shopping trip goes viral

(Newser) - People are singing the praises of an Arkansas mother and daughter who turned a trip to Walmart to buy tampons into an opportunity to "destroy menstruation stigma"—as per Teen Vogue —and—as Mashable puts it—"rip into the patriarchy." Us Weekly reports Belinda Hankins...

Company Promises 'Mess-Free Period Sex,' Raises $1M

Flex is the anti-tampon

(Newser) - Want to raise $1 million? Promise women—and their significant others—a device that allows them to have sex during their periods without worrying about blood. Mashable reports the Flex Company received that amount in funding this month. The San Francisco-based startup, which calls its FLEX menstrual disc the anti-tampon...

NYC Is Making Tampons Free for Millions of Women

Millions of women will have access to free tampons in schools, shelters, and jails

(Newser) - New York City is on track to become the nation's first city to require free tampons and sanitary pads in public schools, homeless shelters, and jails after lawmakers approved the idea Tuesday amid a national discussion of the costs of having a period, the AP reports. The proposal marks...

Will Women Actually Insert This Smart Device Up There?

A Bluetooth-connected tampon is due to hit the market in 2017

(Newser) - It seems there are connected, wearable devices for anything these days, even of the very up close and personal variety—think vibrators and Kegel exercisers. Now a startup called my.Flow is hoping to help women avoid the embarrassment and cost of over-saturated tampons by introducing a smart one whose...

Michigan Sees 'Cluster' of Toxic Shock Cases

5 cases have been reported since December

(Newser) - Cases of toxic shock syndrome have been falling since the 1980s, partly due to increased warnings about tampon use. That's why a sudden bump in cases in Michigan is so startling. Greenville's Rylie Whitten was put on life support in early January with one of the worst cases...

Student Almost Died After Forgetting to Remove Tampon

Weeks later she still needs crutches

(Newser) - Emily Pankhurst is alive today thanks to her mother's sage advice and a round of antibiotics after she discovered that her fatigue, headaches, and fevers weren't mere stress during final exams but the result of leaving a tampon in for nine days. A month later, as she is...

Calif. Pols Push 'Tampons for All' to Fix 'Gender Injustice'

Legislators want to get rid of state sales taxes on feminine hygiene products

(Newser) - Health products like walkers and Viagra are exempt from California state sales tax, and if two assembly members have their way, feminine hygiene products will soon enjoy the same status. Cristina Garcia and Ling Ling Chang introduced a measure Monday maintaining that tampons, sanitary napkins, and similar products are a...

Prisons' Quiet Humiliation: a Lack of Menstrual Pads

Columnist: They're kept in short supply, in part to degrade women

(Newser) - A former inmate at a US women's prison takes to the pages of the Guardian to complain about a quiet way that prisons humiliate and degrade those locked up: with a lack of menstrual pads. Bozelko served at York Correctional Institution in Connecticut, but she says the problem is...

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