I'll tell you this, after learning about this in our class, most of the females wound up feeling angry and upset with the tampon industry, and I for one, am going to do something about it. To start, I want to inform everyone I can, and e-mail is the fastest way that I know how. The tampon industry is convinced that we, as women, need bleached white products - in order to view the product as pure and clean. The problem here is that the dioxin produced in this bleaching process can lead to very harmful problems for a woman. It has been linked to endometriosis as well as lower sperm counts for men - for both, it breaks down the immune system.
Rayon contributes to the danger of tampons and dioxin because it is a highly absorbent substance.
It also stays in a lot longer than it would with just cotton tampons. Unfortunately, there are very, very few companies that make these safe tampons. They are usually only found in health food stores. In 1989, activists in England mounted a campaign against chlorine bleaching. Personally I think it's time that the U.S. switches, and we need to make our voices heard.