Problems Faced by China's Tampon Standardization and

Improvement Countermeasures

Yining Zu

Business College, Beijing Union University, Beijing, China

Keywords: Tampon Standardization, Feminine Hygiene, Supplies Standards.

Abstract: With more and more women began to use tampons as menstrual hygiene products, its product standards have

also entered the public eye, many women's menstrual hygiene products manufacturers output products were

found to have varying degrees of product quality and other issues, cannot help but let the public worry about

it. This paper focuses on the product standards for tampons and standards for comparative analysis of the

problem, through in-depth study of a large number of relevant literatures, found that China's tampons in the

standard system, the level of index standards and design there is room for improvement. On this basis, it is

proposed that China should strengthen supervision, upgrade testing technology and call on enterprises, the

government and consumers to collaborate to promote the improvement of standards. Pro-vide reference

suggestions for China's tampon standardization of national standards.

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, with tampons and other female

menstrual hygiene products standards into the public

eye, female menstrual hygiene and safety issues such

as industry and social concerns. In order to further

provide protection for the safety of women's

menstruation, tampons and even all female menstrual

hygiene products to further enhance the influence and

credibility of the domestic standards, tampon

standards in China to international standards is

particularly important. This paper will start with the

domestic and foreign tampon standards, select some

key indicators and analyze them one by one, explain

the importance of tampon standards to international

standards and the problems they face, and put forward

the corresponding improvement measures.

In the first half of the 20th century, the

predecessor of the commercial tampon was invented

and began to be marketed in the United States, only

to be criticized for its negative health and safety

implications (Cui, 2022). Toxic shock syndrome

(TSS), which once caused headaches for the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and others, has

been linked to tampon production standards

(Hochwalt et al., 2023). Until now, warnings about

TSS have been printed on the packaging of tampons,

which has increased consumer concern about the

safety of tampons and the standardization of the

product.

Under a cloud of doubt about the pathogenesis of

TSS, although the cause is still unknown, the strong

impetus of various medical research concluded that

the absorption rate of tampons is the focus of the

problem. In the tampon absorption rate development

process, some tampon manufacturers with the

medical "in vitro experimental device syngina"

constructed a hypothetical, experimental

environment of the female vagina, based on the

syngina test to develop the absorption rate standard.

However, this standard was challenged by women's

consumer groups and some medical experts because

the simulated vagina did not reflect the true

absorption rate of tampons (Hochwalt et al., 2023).

However, due to the controversy and inability to

reach consensus, the FDA ultimately promulgated an

absorption rate standard based on the syngina

designation, and our tampon absorption rate test

method is consistent with this, but still controversial.

Women's health and safety during menstruation is

of paramount importance, not only in relation to a

woman's own reproductive health, but also in terms

of how it may affect her long-term physical health and

overall well-being.

This research report analyzes from the perspective

of importance, problems and other perspectives, the

use of literature research method, read a large number

Zu, Y.

Problems Faced by China’s Tampon Standardization and Improvement Countermeasures.

DOI: 10.5220/0014384700004859

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science (ICPLSS 2025), pages 471-475

ISBN: 978-989-758-785-6

471

of literatures, selected part of the citation, according

to the theme of the report in recent years related to the

literature was read to summarize and discuss the

research theme. Combined with the comparative

research method, from the importance of tampon

standard standardization, the domestic and

international standards for comparison, penetration

and summarize the standardization of the problems

that exist and give the corresponding

countermeasures.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In the comparison of domestic and international

standards for tampons, the study points out that a total

of one major indicator, fiber shedding, is lower than

the international standard in the domestic standard,

and a number of other indicators appear to have

different emphasis in the domestic and international

standards (Zhang et al., 2024). In addition to the

above indicators, as tampons, as a kind of built-in

feminine hygiene products, their usability and safety

have been widely concerned by consumers,

accordingly, the research on tampon standards in

China in terms of product usability and safety needs

to be continued and deepened.

Through the analysis of China's tampon standard

standardization of the current situation, to find out the

current standardization of China's tampon

standardization of the problems encountered and

solutions to countermeasures, in the current situation

of the domestic standards, mainly from the existing

regulations and standards for comparison and then

analyzed one by one, and the importance of China's

tampon standard standardization.

In addition, in the tampon standards to

international standards and the significance of the

importance of the tampon standard, domestic women

on the use of tampons and consumer preference for its

gradual increase in the public's attention to its

standards also rose, and as the use of the product has

been a place in the international community, tampons

in the consumer market is not to be underestimated

the vitality of tampons, tampon standards to

international standards to bring the impact and

Credibility of tampon standards to international

standards to bring the impact and credibility of the

relevant products is of great significance.

The study of the relevant types provides an

important reference for identifying problems in

benchmarking tampon standards to international

standards.

3 CHINA'S TAMPON

STANDARDS AGAINST THE

INTERNATIONAL STATUS

QUO ANALYSIS

3.1 The Importance of China's

Tampon Standards to International

Standards

The importance of the safety of female menstrual

hygiene products should not be underestimated. The

completeness of female menstrual health and safety

can safeguard reproductive health, maintain a normal

menstrual cycle, alleviate menstrual discomfort,

enhance psychological status, reduce the risk of

chronic diseases and promote overall health.

Tampons, as female menstrual hygiene products, are

closely linked to women's menstrual health and

safety, and are an important part of ensuring women's

menstrual health and safety. In addition, menstrual

discomfort and health problems may affect women's

productivity and career development. Maintaining

menstrual health can reduce sickness-related

absenteeism and work inefficiency, with positive

personal and socio-economic impacts. It can also

reduce the burden of health care and the use of health

care resources for individuals and society.

The global tampon market size has been

expanding over the past few years, and this growth is

mainly attributed to the growing female population

across the globe, increased purchasing power due to

economic development, and rising health and

personal hygiene concerns among women (Pollard,

2023).

According to the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration requirements, tampons as a Class II

medical device, need to pass the biocompatibility test

(ISO 10993), to obtain FDA 510k approval letter in

the U.S. Customs clearance and sales, and China's

export enterprises need to pay an additional 20-50

million yuan of testing costs. China’s tampon

standards to the international level, not only can help

improve the quality of our products to further

improve the quality of foreign countries can pass the

test but also reduce the cost of foreign trade exports

of related products in China.

Improving domestic standards for feminine

hygiene products will help China's hygiene industry

to improve the relevant discourse in the international

context, help enhance the industrial landscape,

promote industry upgrading, improve the industry's

product supply chain, accelerate product promotion,

ICPLSS 2025 - International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science

472

better serve the majority of consumers, and promote

the rise of consumer market activity.

3.2 Comparative Analysis of Domestic

International Standards for

Tampons

For the analysis of domestic and international

standards for tampons, comparisons were made in

terms of the standard's attributes, raw materials,

physical and hygiene indicators, as well as labeling

and descriptions.

From the standard attributes, China's standards on

tampons are national standards, many foreign

standards for the relevant departments to develop

standards and regulations.

In terms of raw materials, our country and the

international standards in the focus and the

requirements of the content of reflect the difference,

our country in addition to the absorber of the material

is also stipulated, while foreign standards are mainly

on the absorber of the raw material itself to limit the

raw material, can be seen in our country's standard on

the raw material requirements are more stringent (

Zhang et al.,2024 ).

In the physical indicators, the test requirements of

various standards as well as the test method are

different, but the unified are on the amount of

absorption requirements, although other aspects of

inconsistency, but the amount of absorption of the test

method is the same, all for artificial vagina test. In

addition, the U.S. FDA 510 (k) in the proposal of our

country has not yet required the fiber shedding

instructions.

In terms of hygiene indicators, China classifies

tampons as disposable sanitary products, and in

comparison, China's requirements for microbial

limits are more stringent than foreign standards. In

terms of labeling and descriptions, domestic and

international standards are comparable (Zhang et al.,

2024), and there are no special items for the time

being.

3.3 Problems with China's Tampon

Standards

3.3.1 Lack of Standard Systems

China's current standards are divided into national

standards and group standards, with national

standards including GB/T 43585-2023 "Disposable

Tampons" and GB 15979-2024 "Hygiene

Requirements for Disposable Sanitary Products".

Group standards include T/CNITA 09102-2018

Tampon standard issued by China Industrial Textiles

Industry Association. The coverage of the above

standards and the degree of refinement is still to be

improved, and there may be differences in the actual

use of different brands and types of tampons, the

standards need to be further refined to meet the

diverse market demand.

And as the International Organization for

Standardization (ISO) advances its standardization

work in the field of menstrual products (ISO, 2022),

China needs to accelerate the updating of standards

and international convergence. For example, ISO has

set up a specialized technical committee on menstrual

products, and China should also actively participate

in and promptly introduce international advanced

standards into the country.

3.3.2 Lack of Standardized Qualification of

Minutiae in Some Indicators

China's current tampon product standards do not

explain the fiber shedding, in the U.S. FDA 510 (k),

the fiber shedding instructions, the need for reporting

and self-declaration, and China has not yet made the

requirements of the indicator. In addition, China's

domestic standards as a result of tampons as

disposable sanitary products to manage, for microbial

limit requirements are stricter than foreign standards,

such as the production environment should be in line

with the Good Manufacturing Practice for

Pharmaceuticals (2010 Revision) in the requirements

of the class D clean area, and take appropriate

measures to monitor particles and microorganisms

(GB/T 43585- 2023 , and so on. 2023), etc.

3.3.3 Inadequate Security by Design

The design of tampons is on the safety of some

shortcomings, there are two main points. One for the

tampon product conduit material, tampon conduit

material mainly plastic and paper two kinds of

different materials, there are some defects, in our

country, two kinds of conduit material have products

use. The defects of plastic catheter include poor

environmental protection, due to most of the plastic

tampon catheter is not degradable, the use of which

will increase environmental pollution and aggravate

the burden of plastic degradation, and the other

defect, namely, the surface is not smooth enough, and

the feeling of foreign body is strong, and other

problems of the sense of experience of use (Reame,

2018). While paper tampon catheters are defective in

terms of strength, absorbency and other issues, and

the same drawbacks in terms of comfort as well as

environmental friendliness.

Problems Faced by China’s Tampon Standardization and Improvement Countermeasures

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Another point is the product's anti-reflux design,

the tampon product's absorption path design is

unreasonable, most tampons on the market have

vertical grooves extending from top to bottom,

menstrual blood will flow quickly along the grooves

to the bottom, which is not fully absorbed by the

tampon, but also easy to lead to the reversal of

menstrual blood flow. If tampons are placed

incorrectly or not changed in a timely manner, the

menstrual blood may not be absorbed effectively,

resulting in reflux (Shearston et al., 2024).

4 COUNTERMEASURES

AGAINST INTERNATIONAL

STANDARDS

4.1 Improve the Tampon Standard

System

Requirements for indicators are refined to further

improve the standard content of tampons, especially

for product design, and other aspects of the technical

requirements, in order to better meet consumer

demand. According to the mandatory national

standards management approach, the State Council

administrative department in charge of

standardization unified management of national

standardization work, responsible for mandatory

national standards for the project, number, external

notification and approval of the release. The

administrative departments for standardization at all

levels, relevant administrative departments, industry

associations and technical committees should

organize the publicity and promotion of national

standards. This includes popularizing the content of

the standards for enterprises and the public through a

variety of channels (e.g., training, seminars, publicity

materials, etc.) to ensure that enterprises understand

and are able to properly implement the standards. The

administrative department for standardization under

the State Council establishes an information feedback

mechanism for the implementation of national

standards and smooths the information feedback

channels (Spitzer, 2024). Enterprises and consumers

can provide feedback on problems in the

implementation of the standards, and the regulatory

authorities should handle and publicize relevant

information in a timely manner to ensure the effective

implementation of the standards.

Supervisory authorities should strengthen the

supervision and inspection of the implementation of

standards by enterprises and penalize non-compliant

enterprises in accordance with the law. In addition,

the text of mandatory standards should be made

available to the public free of charge to improve the

transparency of the standards and facilitate the

supervision of enterprises and the public.

4.2 Improve Tampon Testing

Standards

Improving the testing standard of tampons should

mainly start with the upgrading of testing technology

and scenario-based testing. In terms of upgrading

testing technology, testing technologies such as ultra-

high-definition and high-speed image testing

technology, rapid screening technology, intelligent

sensor monitoring system and other testing

technologies should be further improved. In the

implementation of scenario-based testing, attention

should be focused on simulating real use scenarios

and doing multi-dimensional simulation under a

variety of conditions, and real users should be invited

to participate in the test, carefully collecting feedback

and the feeling of use, and constantly enriching the

quantity and quality of data (Vostral, 2020). Big data

and intelligent technology can also be used to carry

out multi-dimensional comparison and risk warning

of test results and develop intelligent testing systems

to automatically identify and classify test results to

improve the accuracy and efficiency of testing.

4.3 Reinforce the Importance of

Tampon Standards in China

By carrying out collaborative cooperation within the

industry to help improve China's tampon standards

and the implementation of the following, enterprises

should establish a sound quality management system

to ensure that products comply with national

standards. For products that do not meet the standard,

enterprises should take the initiative to recall and

rectify. Mutual supervision and common growth in

the industry, the realization of the enterprise Jianlian

at the same time, the main strengthening of the

importance of tampon product standards. Can also

strengthen the cooperation between enterprises and

testing organizations, in the enterprise should

establish a sound self-testing system at the same time

regularly invite third-party testing organizations to

carry out independent testing to ensure the objectivity

and fairness of the test results. Enterprises and testing

organizations can also jointly carry out research and

development projects to explore new testing

technologies and methods, drawing on the strengths

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of both sides to promote technological progress in the

industry (Zhang & Li, 2021).

Raising the level of consumer attention. Through

product manuals, publicity materials and other

means, as well as school education, workplace

lectures, media publicity and other channels,

popularize the correct use of tampons, the main points

of purchase and precautions, improve consumers'

health awareness and discernment, popularize the

correct use of tampons to tampon consumers as well

as the hazards of improper use, including the

placement of the position, frequency of replacement,

etc., and reduce the number of problems caused by

improper operation and safety awareness. This will

minimize problems in menstrual health caused by

improper handling and insufficient safety awareness.

5 CONCLUSION

This paper adopts the literature research method and

other methods, the analysis of China's tampon

standards, on than domestic and foreign tampon

standards, summarizes the difference between

China's tampon standards and foreign standards, and

further elaborates on the standard to the international

problems faced and countermeasures, which, the

problem is specifically reflected in the standard

system is imperfect, part of the indicators in the

standard of the content of the subtle lack of standard

qualification as well as the design of the Safety is

insufficient, after that, from the perfect tampon

standard system, improve tampon testing standards,

strengthen the attention of all parties to China's

tampon standards in three aspects of the narrative,

gives the corresponding countermeasures in the

problem.

China's tampon standards to international

standards for women's menstrual safety, trade in

feminine hygiene products, as well as to enhance the

credibility and influence of domestic standards have

an important role. Although the current tampon

standards to international standards there is still a

standard system that is not perfect, product design and

some of the indicators are missing and other issues.

But with the strengthening of the standard system of

supervision, improving testing standards and other

countermeasures continue to improve, will step by

step tampon standards to international standards. In

the future, we need to work together with all sectors

of society and constantly promote the operation of

standards to international standards, to protect the

safety of women's menstruation, sales and exports of

related products to help move forward, and to

promote the development of women's menstrual

hygiene products.

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