#Contaminated Soil Removal

[paigeedirect]

Contaminated Soil Removal Bournemouth - Complete Soil Solutions

Complete Soil Solutions: Elevating Environmental Excellence in Contaminated Soil Removal

When it comes to the intricate task of Contaminated Soil Removal in Bournemouth, Complete Soil Solutions emerges as the premier choice, setting new standards in environmental stewardship. Here’s why discerning clients opt for their services:

Safety First Approach: Safety is paramount in every phase of their operations. Complete Soil Solutions adheres to the highest safety standards, implementing protocols that safeguard both their team and the community from potential hazards associated with contaminated soil removal.

Tailored Solutions for Every Client: Understanding that each project is unique, Complete Soil Solutions provides bespoke solutions. Whether dealing with industrial pollutants or hazardous substances, their approach is customised to meet the specific needs of every client.

Timely Project Completion: Time is often a critical factor in environmental projects. Complete Soil Solutions is committed to timely project completion without compromising the quality of their services. Clients can rely on them to meet deadlines and deliver results.

Choosing Complete Soil Solutions for Contaminated Soil Removal in Bournemouth is a commitment to environmental responsibility. Contact them today and experience a level of service that goes beyond conventional soil removal, ensuring a greener, safer future for all.

[wausaupilot]

UWSP faculty awarded grant for soils research

The group’s proposal, Phytoremediation of PFAS in Wisconsin Soils using Hemp and Alfalfa, was funded $175,000, to be split between two years from January 2024 through December 2025.

STEVENS POINT – Five faculty members at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a collaborator at UW-Madison were awarded one of three 2023 Universities of Wisconsin Innovation Grants for research on phytoremediation, the removal of synthetic materials from soil using living plants, UWSP announced today. The group’s proposal, Phytoremediation of PFAS in Wisconsin Soils using Hemp and…

[simpletank]

Addressing Groundwater Contamination in NJ | Simple Tank Services

Simple Tank Services is dedicated to addressing and resolving groundwater contamination issues in New Jersey. With our specialized expertise, we provide comprehensive solutions to ensure environmental safety and compliance. If you're dealing with concerns about Groundwater Contamination NJ, trust our experienced team for efficient and effective remediation. Contact us today to safeguard your property and the environment from groundwater contamination challenges in New Jersey.

[delta-remediation]

Breaking Down Contamination: The Top Bioremediation Companies in Canada

Canada is a nation that boasts a diverse landscape, plentiful natural resources, and thriving wildlife. Unfortunately, due to urbanization, industrialization, and human activities, the environment has become contaminated with hazardous chemicals and pollutants. One of the most effective and sustainable methods for environmental cleanup is bioremediation, which leverages microorganisms and other biological agents to break down and remove contaminants from the environment.

Numerous bioremediation companies in Canada offer innovative solutions for environmental remediation. These companies utilize cutting-edge technology and pioneering techniques to remediate contaminated sites, restore natural habitats, and safeguard public health. Let's delve deeper into some of Canada's premier bioremediation companies.

Delta Remediation is a bioremediation solutions provider headquartered in Alberta, which delivers inventive and sustainable environmental cleanup solutions. The company's bioremediation services employ a diverse range of microbial cultures and bioaugmentation techniques to remediate contaminated sites, serving clients not only in Canada but also in Nigeria and Kenya.

Terrapure Environmental is a leading environmental solutions provider with operations throughout Canada, including Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta. The company offers a comprehensive range of services, including bioremediation, soil treatment, hazardous waste management, and industrial cleaning. Terrapure Environmental's bioremediation services rely on microbial cultures to break down organic contaminants and remove them from soil and groundwater.

Vertex Environmental is an Ontario-based consulting and remediation company that caters to clients in various sectors such as mining, oil and gas, and real estate. The company's bioremediation services utilize an array of biological agents, including bacteria and fungi, to degrade and remove contaminants from soil and water. Vertex Environmental has several offices across Canada.

Maxxam Analytics is a scientific services company with multiple locations across Canada, including Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia. The company offers analytical testing, environmental consulting, and bioremediation services, leveraging a variety of technologies, such as biostimulation, bioaugmentation, and phytoremediation, to clean up contaminated sites.

Golder Associates, an engineering and environmental consulting company, provides services to clients in various sectors, including mining, oil and gas, and transportation. The company's bioremediation services utilize several techniques, such as aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation, to remove contaminants from soil and groundwater. Golder Associates is based in British Columbia and has numerous offices across Canada.

In summary, bioremediation is a sustainable and effective method of environmental cleanup that is gaining traction throughout Canada. Canada's bioremediation companies provide groundbreaking and advanced solutions for cleaning up contaminated sites, preserving public health, and restoring natural habitats. If you are seeking a trustworthy bioremediation company in Canada, consider contacting one of these top providers.

[crevicedwelling]

I know it’s a funny statement and that’s why it became a meme but when you hear “isopods remove heavy metals from soil” it’s not like they’re mining it and putting the contaminants in piles. it goes into their bodies and makes them very sick, and can lead to toxic metal buildup in animals that eat them

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Wound Care

Wound care - involves cleaning a wound, flushing or irrigating it with pressurized water or an antiseptic solution, and applying or changing a dressing.

Immediate Wound Care

Applying direct pressure to control any bleeding

Examining the wound for dirt and foreign objects after any bleeding has stopped

Cleaning the wound by gently flooding it with saline solution if available, with bottled water, or with clean running water

Gently cleansing the area around the wound with soap and clean water

Patting the area dry and covering it with an adhesive bandage or clean dry cloth

Leaving uncovered bites, punctures, and wounds that cannot be properly cleaned to prevent trapping bacteria that could result in infection

Aftercare

Aimed at preventing infection.

Puncture wounds or contaminated wounds may require a tetanus booster shot.

Dressings should never be reused.

Any soiled laundry from wound care procedures should be washed separately from other laundry, possibly with bleach.

Sometimes a wound-drainage culture is used to test for bacteria, fungi, or viruses in open wounds from punctures, cuts, tears, or surgical incisions or abscesses.

Abscesses require making a small incision in the skin to obtain pus or fluid from the wound.

The tip of a sterile cotton swab or a syringe and small needle (needle aspiration) is used to remove the sample for culturing.

Some Terminology

Aerobe—Bacteria that require oxygen to live.

Alginate—Colloidal substances from marine brown algae, especially giant kelp, that are used for wound dressings.

Anaerobe—Bacteria that live only where there is no oxygen.

Antiseptic—Chemicals applied to the skin to destroy bacteria and prevent infection.

Autolytic—Self-digestion; breakdown of tissue by the body’s own enzymes.

Debridement—The removal of cut, dead, or contaminated tissue.

Dehiscence—The opening of sutures from a surgical incision.

Dressing—The covering of a wound.

Exudate—Drainage from a wound; an exudative wound is one that drains fluid and pus.

Hydrocolloid—Dressing material that turns into a gel when combined with watery drainage.

Hydrogel—A water-based dressing material.

Hydrophilic—Dressing material that absorbs water.

Irrigation—Flushing or washing out a wound.

Necrotic—Dead tissue.

Normal flora—The mixture of bacteria normally found at specific body sites.

Normal saline—Physiological saline; a solution of 0.9% sodium chloride, the approximate salt concentrate of blood and tissues.

Tetanus—Lockjaw; a rare but often fatal infection caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani that lives in soil, dust, and manure.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References More: Writing Realistic Injuries ⚜ On Anatomy ⚜ On Wounds

[ad-caelestia]

basic ass witch tips 🔮

[revised post from ~2018 & last edited on 9.29.24]

please note that these are all related to things i have actually seen discussed or mentioned. please do your research before blindly following the advice of someone online, myself included.

if you're on some kind of medication, including but not limited to hormonal birth control, heart medication, and anti-depressants, double check with your healthcare professional/provider [HCP] before you drink that new tea you just bought.

always, always, always tell your HCP before trying any kind of herbal supplement, whether it’s something you made yourself or something you bought at the store.

have a diagnosed medical condition? talk to your HCP before ingesting anything or putting anything on your body that you aren’t familiar with.

don’t. drink. essential. oils. essential oils are not consumable!!!!!

citrus oils can cause photosensitivity, or being sensitive to light and more susceptible to sunburns so be mindful when using these oils on your skin.

if it hasn't been emphasized enough, PLEASE dilute your essential oils before use! common carrier oils are grapeseed, castor, olive, coconut, avocado, almond, etc.

oil and water don't mix, so you would need to use an alcohol based solution with essential oils to dilute them that way (if you plan to use them for a spray or something of that nature).

be mindful of using sprays, incense, powders, etc. that could release particulates into the air around pets or those who have allergies, respiratory issues, etc.

don't involve your pets in your practice in a way that could be harmful to them - no essential oils on them, no crystals in their water bowl, no moon water that's been sitting on your shelf for weeks.

i beg you, please don't put crystals in any uh bodily orifices.

there are some herbs you absolutely cannot burn (or use safely, really) for any reason, so make sure you're educated on all that beforehand; yew, for example, is highly toxic and potentially fatal if consumed or inhaled. the leaves, bark, and seeds contains a chemical called taxine, which is what some of the most hardcore chemotherapies are made from so keep that in the back of your mind.

that being said, please wear gloves and use common sense if you decide to forage for your own herbs or plants. i know that plant identifying apps exist so if you have a smartphone, that might be a good place to start.

putting salt on grass does a couple of things: salt removes moisture from the soil, thus drying out the grass and killing it; and, salt causes chloride to build up in the soil, thus making it toxic which inhibits chlorophyll production, leading the grass to eventually "starve" and die - please don't do this.

don't leave candles unattended - even small ones; it's not a good habit to get into.

also!! crystal balls in direct sunlight can cause a fire so be careful!

more fire stuff - be mindful of the environment and also safety so check for burn bans before you make a fire outdoors.

sterile lancets, not needles or pins. that's all i'm gonna say about that.

don't drink water you collected from anywhere outside unless you plan to properly filter it first.

if you plan to store water for later use (moon water, for example), refrigerate it or set it in a cool, dark place.

distilled water is free of minerals and contaminants so it has a longer shelf life than tap or bottled water - keep this in mind when making charged waters or other potion type things.

fresh herbs or other things of that nature left at room temperature can also grow super harmful bacteria. for example, putting raw garlic in olive oil and leaving it at room temperature will end as a breeding ground for botulism and mold.

be safe out there!

© 2024 𝚊𝚍-𝚌𝚊𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚊

[weepingtalecowboy]

Twilight be Struggling

Fanfic prompt: You know how the Twilight literally drained Hyrule (and probably more) off its light and took all people along side it

Like it would create so many problems for Hyrule in the long term even after the Twilight disaster got fixed

For example if it affected the fauna and flora so badly that everything lacks colors even after restoring the forests

It is safe to assume that damage was caused to it

Literally poison

For example if a forest gets poisoned even if the poisonous substance is removed the soil and flora could still have been permanently contaminated by it (even magic light spirits trying to fix it damage IS damage which is why it is so hard to safe forests… a sick tree is not gonna be able to do anything even though the ground has been cleared …that’s why those trees oftentimes get cut )

And the fact that the world was visibly more muted and grey in colors…

Man, that doesn’t sound good

After the Flora the fauna usually follows eating the contaminated flora and getting sick or dying from it

Spreading it through descendants and generations of offsprings and eventually being eaten by predators or recycled creating a cycle of contamination

And that is not good as well

Further the disappearance of people after the twilight came over Hyrule means that farmers couldn’t have taken care off crops

Livestock would have been unsupervised and been put in danger for the duration of the farmer's disappearance

Pets being at risk of starvation

And if it ended in a food crisis because the contamination of the twilight and infested livestock through contaminated grass or the few weeks of disappearance costed the farmers their crop yields and the livestock's health

Then it would be an immediate shortage and problem for an entire year or five depending on how bad the contamination situation is

For example some contaminated areas still decades later are unsafe to live or gather in

And contaminated fauna means that hunting would be a very unsafe thing to do if they get sick from a diseased animal it would be a no go

And being the Zelda series' goth child who is edgy and dark I think that it would not even be that far fetched to assume for it

And then Twilight joining the chain while knowing that his entire Hyrule is on a tight budget when it comes down to food and having to tell the chain mostly Wild

Not to hunt or gather anything in forests because it could make them sick

The angst and emotional pain of having to watch your ancestor see the future he created thinking that it will be better and having to say it is screwed up anyway even though he thought he made it better

(time would be heartbroken and blame himself because if he never snitched on ganondorf then ganon wouldn’t be sealed away and have become a problem for twilight)

Hyrule seeing twilight’s screwed over Hyrule: …relatable lol

Them everything is fucked in over in our world duo for the win

[trusteddemolitioncontractor]

Safeguarding Your Site with Expert Contaminated Soil Removal Services: A Comprehensive Guide

Professional contaminated soil waste removal services provide a safe and efficient way to remove hazardous materials from a property. Using specialized containment vehicles, experienced personnel, and the proper regulations and procedures, they can help ensure that local and federal guidelines safely dispose of the contaminated soil. 

[lilyofporcelain]

DWC - 23 Nov - Day 7 - Peculiar / Theory

Lady Laeynna Emberflame, In the past, your knowledge and research has been an undeniable asset to some of us within the Society. Many years have come and gone since our paths last crossed, and I trust this letter finds you well. An opportunity has presented once more, if you find yourself with idle hands and the time in which to use them. Research is being conducted on soil along the Lordaeronian coastline. Rumours of potential contamination as we investigate further. The Society would benefit from your assistance and you will be well-compensated, as you have been in the past for your invaluable efforts. We encourage you to bring your research and make use of our laboratory in return for your assistance. If you are able to pry yourself away from the gruelling day-to-day affairs of elven society, make way for the Sepulcher. You will be welcomed here. Sincerely, Renferrel Apothecary, R.A.S.

Laeynna’s face pulled as she studied the contents of the missive she received and she poised a corner idly along her bottom lip in thought. She couldn’t quite remember when she’d last received one. For a period of time after she’d found herself removed from the lands she was so familiar with, her talents had been put to use with the Society. On occasion. Never really aware of what their aims might have been, she’d consider it a more pleasant way to spend some of her free time and to line her satchels with coin. Given she faced a very uncertain future with a very unstable income as she watched her life change before her eyes, it was, in fact, an opportunity.

Nerves fluttered along the deeper parts of her person, however. Ever since Zaihne had seen her back from the City of Threads, she had largely hidden herself in really only two places. Neither of which were hers and as a result, left her feeling uneasy. The nightmares had somewhat stopped. Sort of. Some nights were better than other ones. She had learnt to better keep herself composed, regardless.

In truth, she needed to get away. The red and gold was stifling. It didn’t have to be forever, but she knew that leaving for at least a few days, breathing air that was elsewhere, having space that didn’t leave her obsessing over every little detail on how she might approach the future and what she was going to do would have likely done her heart and mind a great deal of good. Not an escape. Just enough time to put her thoughts elsewhere because banging her head against the proverbial wall had done nothing beneficial. It had only upset her and chipped away at her ordinarily rather rigid and stone-like composure.

The wanting to leave part was easy. The actual action of leaving was harder. What if something happened? Eyeing her free hand and studying the palm, pensive, Laeynna wondered if it would be more worth it to consider hiring escort. Not simply for this trip, but for any others. Something to guarantee her safety. Where once she had not been concerned about travelling anywhere on her own, memories of her experiences beneath the earth changed that. Drastically. Every time she’d thought about resuming her studies, her stomach knotted up, and not even the most pleasantly warm cup of tea did anything about it.

No. An escort would be needed. How many? Not a group. Laeynna did not like travelling with groups. Too many people to keep an eye on. Too many people to be looking over her shoulder for. One could satisfy if they were capable enough. Could carry her things for her, even. The trip was a decent one in length if she took the route she cared to. But that also meant spending days with a person she likely didn’t know. What if she found she couldn’t stand them?

Laeynna’s eyebrows knit thoughtfully. I suppose I could ignore them if it came to that. It was not as though she was looking for a conversation companion. She was perfectly content to travel in silence. It would give her time to work on her own research along the way.

Freeing a quiet sigh, she carefully folded up the parchment and slowly nodded. Yes. It was a good idea. Yes, she wanted to do it. Yes, she would need to work out some of the details. And at least a couple of conversations would need to be had.

…It would be fine.

Probably.

— @daily-writing-challenge

[simpletank]

Groundwater Contamination Solutions in New Jersey | Simple Tank Services

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[workersolidarity]

🇺🇲 🚨

SIX DRUMS FILLED WITH TOXIC CHEMICALS DEPOSITED BY NORTHROP GRUMMAN FOUND BURIED IN CANCER-PLAGUED LONG ISLAND TOWN

📹 Six 55-gallon drums filled with toxic chemicals, and encased in concrete coffins, some broken, were found buried under Bethpage Community Park in cancer-plagued Bethpage, a town on Long Island in New York State, which was deposited by U.S. military contractor Northrop Grumman.

Previously, the town of Bethpage had to contend with a 6-square mile toxic plume of hazardous waste resulting from Northrop Grumman's dumping of chemicals underground in the area.

At least one of the 55-gallon drums was found punctured, and some contained flammable chemicals.

The drums were found buried just 4-feet underground, underneath the Park's baseball field which was previously abandoned more than 20 years ago due to concerns over soil contamination.

According to a report in New York Post, a layer of clay was found under the drums, where authorities believe chemicals could have seeped into the ground.

Oyster Bay Supervisor, Joseph Saladino, called on authorities with New York's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to clean up the park by collecting all the contaminated soil and removing it from Long Island. The community's tax payers previously paid $20 million to clean up the site to allow local residents to use the Park's skating rink.

Saladino also filed a lawsuit against Northrup Grumman 10 years ago to reimburse the community's costs for the cleanup, while a new lawsuit was filed in December to order the further cleanup and removal of the toxic soil.

Local residents have been complaining of higher cancer rates in their community for years, arguing that surrounding communities have far lower rates to their own, while the DEC claimed the discovery posed "no immediate threat to public health."

Still, local residents say they're fed-up, continueing to call for the immediate removal of toxic substances, along with demands for a full soil excavation in the park.

“I’ve had it. I’ve had it. I’ve been working on this for over 20 years as a New York state Assembly member and now as the supervisor of the fourth-largest town in America and I’m not going to sit by idly,” Saladino is quoted as saying.

Northrop Grumman, for its part, said it continues to work with the DEC to address the situation.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[mapsontheweb]

Palomares, Spain. In 1966 two American military airplanes collided in flight and 4 thermonuclear bombs fell to the ground. Two of them released 20kg Plutonium. Today, 57 years later, the US government has promised to remove the contaminated soil and carry it to America.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:

The first time I visited Peehee Mu’huh, mining for lithium had already begun.

I was there in the fall of 2023 as part of my work with People of Red Mountain, descendants of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe who lead the movement against extraction on this sacred landscape. We gathered at the valley in northern Nevada, known as Thacker Pass, to commemorate the massacre of 31 Paiute-Shoshone people there by the U.S. Cavalry on Sept. 12, 1865.

To dig up every pound of lithium, the mine will remove thousands of pounds of rock, soil, and other minerals, most of which will not be used and are considered waste.

That’s the secret of mining: It requires significant space to dump its byproducts.

Mine waste is no longer in the forefront for the environmental movement as it was when coal and nuclear power had their heyday, but it remains a key issue activists and scholars should be following. At Thacker Pass the 1,300 acres of wasteland will occupy the space indefinitely. Arsenic, antimony, and other hazards from the refining process to get lithium from the clay will pile up in this backfill pit and leach into the soils, watersheds, and air.

Historically miners have faced minimal oversight. Any individual could venture onto public lands and stake a claim to the minerals they contained — rights to occupy the land were established merely by proving a mineral’s presence and getting there first. Unlike loggers on public land, miners don’t pay any royalties; mine leases on public lands cost as little as $3 dollars per acre.

You might be forgiven for thinking this scenario sounds like something out of the 1800s prospector and ‘49ers era — and in fact, it is. Mining law was last meaningfully legislated under the 1872 General Mining Act.

Just as with the Black Hills gold rush in the Dakota Territory and those in Oregon and California, mine fervor during the gold and silver rushes that white settlers led on the red-colored mountains of Paiute-Shoshone lands in the 1850s-60s was violent and met by Indigenous resistance.

That resistance was crushed. Many noncombatants were killed and others forcibly displaced to Washington; the destruction continued for decades and hasn’t stopped yet.

Today the land base of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock peoples of the area — collectively known as Atsawkoodakuh wyh Nuwu or Red Mountain Dwellers — is permeated by both abandoned and active mines. Gold and tungsten mining waned in the early to mid-1900s, but then companies started extracting uranium and mercury at the McDermitt and Cordero mines across the road from Fort McDermitt. According to Department of the Interior archives, this was the nation’s largest mercury mine from the 1930s to the 1970s. After the Cordero mine closed, crews spread arsenic-contaminated waste from the mine around the town and reservation as a fill dirt. The region was later declared a Superfund site, and the contaminants were removed between 2009 and 2013.

But the toxic waste caused decades of harm in the community before that removal. In a brazen environmental injustice, many Tribal members who worked there perished of cancer. Sunoco and Barrick Gold, the companies that exploited the quicksilver lode, simply “declined” the EPA’s order to clean up the area and escaped culpability.

Now the sacred landscape of Peehee Mu’huh will become the country’s largest lithium bounty.

A new bill before Congress aims to strip away even the baby-steps reform of Rosemont. The Mining Regulatory Clarity Act (HR2925) passed the House in May and awaits Senate approval (S1281). One would assume a bipartisan effort with such a name would offer progress, but the bill guts Rosemont by removing the requirement of claimants to prove minerals before using and dumping waste on public land.

A competing bill, the Green Energy Minerals Reform Act, would introduce requirements such as paying mineral royalties and funding cleanup — basic protections that should have already been in force. Congress held hearings about this proposed legislation in late 2023, but it has not moved forward since.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Nano- and microplastics are seemingly everywhere -- water, soil and the air. While many creative strategies have been attempted to get rid of these plastic bits, one unexpectedly effective solution for cleaning up drinking water, specifically, might be as simple as brewing a cup of tea or coffee. As reported in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology Letters, boiling and filtering calcium-containing tap water could help remove nearly 90% of the nano- and microplastics present. Contamination of water supplies with nano- and microplastics (NMPs), which can be as small as one thousandth of a millimeter in diameter or as large as 5 millimeters, has become increasingly common. The effects of these particles on human health are still under investigation, though current studies suggest that ingesting them could affect the gut microbiome. Some advanced drinking water filtration systems capture NMPs, but simple, inexpensive methods are needed to substantially help reduce human plastic consumption. So, Zhanjun Li, Eddy Zeng and colleagues wanted to see whether boiling could be an effective method to help remove NMPs from both hard and soft tap water.

Read more.

[mariacallous]

Editor's note:This is the first blog in our series that examines how social determinants influence gender biases in public health research, menstrual hygiene product development, and women’s health outcomes. 

Worldwide, over 100 million women use tampons every day as they are the most popular form of menstrual products. U.S. women spent approximately $1 billion from 2016 to 2021 on tampons, and 22% to 86% of those who menstruate use them during their cycles, with adolescent girls and young adults preferring them. Tampons and pads are the most practical and common option for those who are working and have limited funds. Yet, a recent pilot study exposed concerning amounts of lead, arsenic, and toxic chemicals in tampons: 30 different tampons from 14 brands were evaluated for 16 different metal(loid)s, and tests indicated that all 16 metal(loid)s were detected in all different samples. This news comes as quite a shock to women who use these products. It raises many concerns and questions for those who do not have other viable options when they menstruate. We explore some of the major questions and concerns regarding the products on the market and their potential to increase the risk of exposure to harmful contaminants. It is clear that beyond this pilot study, further research is required to understand the potential health challenges. 

Unpacking the potential risks for those who use menstrual products  

Measurable concentrations of lead and arsenic in tampons are deeply concerning given how toxic they are. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies lead as a major public health concern with no known safe exposure level. Arsenic can lead to several health issues such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. There are three ways in which these metal(loid)s can be introduced into the product: 1) from the raw materials that absorbed the soil and air, like the cotton used in the absorbent core; 2) contamination from water during the manufacturing process; and 3) intentionally being added during the manufacturing process for certain purposes. No matter how these metal(loid)s are introduced into the product, the pilot study stresses that further research must be done to explore the consequences of vaginally absorbed chemicals given the direct line to the circulatory system.   

On an institutional level, the public health system has historically been biased toward the male perspective, essentially excluding research related to women’s health. In 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that women of childbearing age should be excluded from clinical research. Because of this gendered bias, many women now experience delayed diagnoses, misdiagnoses, and suffer more adverse drug effects; eight out of 10 of the drugs removed from U.S. markets from 1997 to 2000 were almost exclusively due to the risk to women. In 1989, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) amended its policy to include women and minorities in research studies, but it wasn’t until 1993 that this policy became federal law in the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993. Then, in 2016, the NIH implemented a policy requiring the consideration of sex as a biological variable in research.  

Historically, women haven’t been in control of the various industries that support their unique health needs and develop products that allow them to manage their health in safe ways. In spite of this, women-owned businesses have increased over time, with many of them supporting a range of products, services, and health and child care needs. Changes in these industries can lead to a better understanding of how certain products aid or impede women’s health trajectories.  

Racialized and gendered bias in health research  

The life expectancy of women continues to be higher than men’s. That does not suggest there has been universal nor equitable support for women’s health issues and women’s health care. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues. They also experience racism and differential treatment in health care and social service settings. This reality becomes starker when stigma and bias influence negative behaviors toward Black women and other women of color, and socioeconomic status limits access to preventative care, follow-up care, and other services and resources.   

Toxic menstrual products are just the tip of the iceberg for gender bias in health research. Gendered bias extends into how health care professionals evaluate men and women differently based on the stereotypical ideas of the gender binary. This results in those who are perceived as women receiving fewer diagnoses and treatments than men with similar conditions, as well as doctors interpreting women’s pain as stemming from emotional challenges rather than anything physical. In a study comparing a patient’s pain rating with an observer’s rating, women’s pain was consistently underestimated while men’s pain was overestimated. Women’s pain is often disregarded or minimized by health care professionals, as they often view it as nothing more than an emotional exaggeration or are quick to blame any physical pain on stress. This has led to a pain gap in which women with true medical emergencies are pushed aside. For instance, the Journal of the American Heart Association reported that women with chest pain waited 29% longer to see a doctor in emergency rooms than men.  

For people of color, especially Black women, the pain gap, as well as the gap in diagnoses and treatment, is exacerbated due to the intersectionality of gender, race, and the historical contexts of Black women’s health in America. Any analysis must consider the unique systemic levels of sexism and racism they face as being both Black and women. They face a multifaceted front of discrimination, sexism, and racism, in which doctors don’t believe their pain due to implicit biases against Black people—a dynamic that stems from slavery, during which it was common belief that Black people had a higher pain tolerance—and women. A study found that white medical students and residents believed at least one false biological difference between white and Black people and were thus more likely to underestimate a Black patient’s pain level.  

Intersectionality, as well as sexism, further explains why medical students that believe in racial differences in pain tolerance are less likely to accurately provide treatment recommendations or pain medications. A Pew study found that 55% of Black people say they’ve had at least one negative experience with doctors, where they felt like they were treated with less respect than others and had to advocate for themselves to get proper care. Comparatively, 52% of younger Black women and 40% of older Black women felt the need to speak up to receive care, while only 29% of younger Black men and 36% of older Black men felt similarly. Particularly among Black women, 34% said their women’s health concerns or symptoms weren’t taken seriously by their health care providers. This even happened to Serena Williams! 

Restructuring the health system  

On Tuesday, September 11, 2024, the FDA announced they would investigate the toxic chemicals and metals in tampons as a result of the pilot study. This comes after public outcry and Senator Patty Murray’s (D-Wash.) letter to FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf asking the agency to evaluate next steps to ensure the safety of tampons and menstrual products. In her letter, she specifically asks what the FDA has done so far in their evaluations and what requirements they have for testing these products, ensuring a modicum of accountability within this market. As of July 2024, the FDA classifies tampons as medical devices and does regulate their safety but only to an extent, with no requirements to test menstrual products for chemical contaminants (aside from making sure they do not contain pesticides or dioxin). The pilot study on tampons containing harmful metals was the first of its kind, which sheds light on how long women’s health has been neglected. Regulations requiring manufacturers to test metals in tampons need to be implemented, and future studies on the adverse health impacts of metals entering the bloodstream must be prioritized. The FDA investigation will hopefully be a step in the right direction toward implementing stricter regulations.  

For too long, the health field has been saturated with studies by and for men. Women’s health, on the other hand, faces inadequate funding, a lack of consideration for women’s lived experiences, and the need for more women leading research teams investigating women’s health. Women, especially those who face economic and social disparities, have the capacity to break barriers and address real issues that impact millions of women each day but only if they are brought to the table. With structural change, we can address how women’s concerns are undermined and put forth efforts to determine new and effective measures for women’s health.