Large numbers of women across Wales have been agitating to get respect and fair treatment for our monthly menstruation, without which the human race would cease to exist. During the Coronavirus crisis, it is important we do not lose sight of this important issue.
Ken Loach’s film I Daniel Blake brought the dilemma of families forced to use food banks in order to feed their children into the limelight. Katie having to steal to get hold of menstrual products made many donors realise women’s dignity was as important as getting families resorting to food banks fed.
However, digging deeper local authority research has revealed that up to 40% girls were missing school because they lacked the pads and tampons to get them through their monthly period. In Cardiff 53% of secondary school staff and 26% of primary school staff said pupils were absent because of their period.
Wings Cymru, a community group in Bridgend, was one of the pioneers to rectify that. They contacted all their schools, and raised money to supply every single school in Bridgend with free pads and tampons. They had extending their availability to local community centres.
Welsh Government has done its bit too. Since March 2018 nearly £4 million has been dispersed to local authorities across Wales to pay for sanitary bins — in some primary schools none were being provided- hand basins inside toilet cubicles and free pads and tampons for pupils. Good schools had been doing this already but in many cases they were being paid for by teachers and other school staff. Over 140,000 girls and young women have benefited. A further £845,000 has been given to further education colleges. Total investment to date: £4.6 million.
£4.6 million is a lot of money So what difference will this money make in the long term? Handing out single use pads and tampons relieves a temporary problem but it is not sustainable. Wider cultural and environmental issues have to be tackled as well.
Period Products are the 5th most common items found on beaches and most of them contain plastic which is then ingested by fish. Ella Daish, a postal worker in Cardiff, noticed just how much litter was being generated by discarded pads and tampons on her delivery rounds.
Having researched just how much plastic is in these single use products, she has waged a two-year campaign to have plastic removed from menstrual products and has given up her postal job to become a full-time campaigner. Already two supermarkets, Sainsbury and Aldi have banned plastic from their own brand pads and tampons.
Ella is now working on local authorities’ procurement specifications. Caerphilly Council has the most innovative purchasing department in Wales — they have taken the lead on sourcing food from local businesses. Caerphilly has recently agreed to strip out any menstrual products that contain plastic from its supplies to schools. Another four other local authorities in South Wales were due to follow suit — but Coronavirus, understandably, has put these plans on hold .
So supermarkets and local authorities are beginning to respond to the public outrage that period products are the 5th biggest contributor to the plastic pollution of our oceans.
Getting the dominant player in the menstrual products markets, Procter and Gamble, to change their ways may be more difficult. They spend millions on procuring brand loyalty for their premium price products, Always and Tampax in girls magazines and giveaway products to schools. Procter and Gamble argue that plastic in their products is good for quality and price. But they are not immune to consumer pressure and have started exploring plastic-free alternatives.
Procter and Gamble co-chairs the UK Government’s Period Poverty Taskforce set up under the May Government. Penny Mordaunt, the then Minister for Women as well as International Development told the House of Commons in April that the Taskforce would also look at “period poverty” in developing countries that DfID provides aid to.
My own experience of charities operating in Africa is that, whilst well-meaning, they are still approaching the issue as if the girls and women they want to help were living in countries with universal running water and waste collection services! With or without plastic, single use pads and tampons are not the solution to a global problem.
Each menstruating person uses up to 250 pads or tampons every year, and over 10,000 during her life cycle until the menopause kicks in . That translates into 3,750 million tons of waste to be disposed of every year in the UK alone. A more fundamental shift in women and girls relationship with their bodies is required.
It is shocking that 1 in 7 girls in the UK do not know what is happening to them when they start their period, sometime between 8 and 16 years old. How terrifying must it be for a girl who starts bleeding between the legs with no knowledge that this is a normal rite of passage from girl to womanhood. The new Welsh curriculum including compulsory Relationships and Sexuality Education should put a stop to that.
I bought a couple of Girls Menstrual Cups in a large local supermarket this week(March 25th) for £8.95 each. Donating them to my local foodbank will enable two young women to tick menstrual products off the list of things they have to worry about at this challenging time. Menstrual or moon cups last at least a decade.
It is encouraging that even in primary school, surveys show that some girls want menstrual cups. In RCT 8% of primary school girls and 15% of secondary pupils asked for moon cups. In Bridgend, Wings Cymru were beginning to provide menstrual cups to any pupils who asked for them. However, I am not suggesting that a menstrual cup is likely to be the product of choice for girls starting their first period.
Once schools can resume their normal activities, a gift of reusable pads or a menstrual cup is a much more sustainable solution than the single use pads and tampons most schools were dishing out. There is normally a wide range of re-usable pads and pants available online; so local authorities should start to test what the market will provide from bulk buying for all their individual schoolgirls. I will certainly lobby the Welsh Government’s Period Dignity Taskforce to address this once normal business resumes.
For now, if you are able to donate items to your local food bank to help people through the Coronavirus pandemic, please think of donating re-usable menstrual pads and cups if you can get hold of them. Women need more than food to get through this pandemic with dignity.
Jenny Rathbones is the Assembly Member for Cardiff Central and chairs the Senedd’s Cross Party Group on Women’s Health.
