Thus far, FDA has received no reports of tampering. Anyone having knowledge of tampon tampering is urged to notify FDA or a law enforcement officer. There are also allegations that some tampons contain toxic amounts of the chemical dioxin. No risk to health would be expected from these trace amounts. Tampons currently sold in the U.S. are made of cotton, rayon, or blends of rayon and cotton.
Rayon is made from cellulose fibers derived from wood pulp.
In this process the wood pulp is bleached. At one time, bleaching the wood pulp was a potential source of trace amounts of dioxin in tampons, but that bleaching method is no longer used. Rayon raw material used in U.S. tampons is now produced using elemental chlorine-free or totally chlorine free bleaching processes. These methods include the use of chlorine dioxide as the bleaching agent as well as totally chlorine-free processes. Some elemental chlorine-free bleaching processes can theoretically generate dioxins at extremely low levels, and dioxins are occasionally detected in trace amounts in mill effluents and pulp.