Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of supporting public education campaigns to raise awareness of (a) the presence of toxic substances in period products and (b) safer alternatives to period products.

Period products are regulated by the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, which requires all products to be safe and for consumers to be provided with information on the potential risks of a product. Through the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, the Government has committed to consult on this matter to ensure that any changes to the safety provisions of these products are robust and consistent.

Studies carried out in the EU on chemicals in period products found that the chemicals identified in these products were present only in low concentrations, with no evidence of significant risks to human health. If a product were identified as unsafe, the Office for Product Safety and Standards would seek to remove it from the market, rather than run a public awareness campaign.

More widely, UK Health Security Agency is considering the information available to members of the public with respect to chemicals, and looking to publish a new website to give consumers access to more information on the chemicals they use in their everyday lives.