ND professor finds PFAS in period underwear

By CAROLINE COLLINS new Writer editor

The period underwear brand Thinx recently settled a class action lawsuit claiming its products contain harmful chemicals. Graham p easlee, n otre d ame professor in the d epartment of p hysics & Astronomy, tested in Thinx underwear for these chemicals and s ierra magazine collaborated with p easlee to published an investigation on the matter in 2020. p eriod underwear is washable and reusable underwear designed to soak up menstrual blood. They are supposed to be an eco-friendly alternative to one-time-use pads and tampons. h owever, recent studies have shown that the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ( pfA s ) in period underwear are harmful for the wearer and for the environment. p easlee used a particle-induced gamma-ray emission ( p IG e ) spectroscopy test to analyze the concentrations of pfA s in different brands of period underwear. h e found a high peak for fluorine concentration, which is indicative of pfA s , in the inside layer of the Thinx underwear he tested. p easlee said pfA s are a class of highly persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances. These molecules last forever in the environment and accumulate in people’s bodies because they contain a strong carbon-fluorine bond that will never decay.

“All people in n orth America have about 5 [parts per million] of pfA s in their bodies,” he said.

The issue isn’t so much the pfA s that is in products that we use and consume, but rather what happens to those products after we are done with them, p easlee explained. The chemicals go into the landfill and don’t break down and eventually, they get into the water supply and our bodies.

“The scary part is that this molecule is everywhere and nobody realizes because the companies told us it was safe,” p easlee said.

Jessian c hoy, the freelance writer for s ierra magazine who broke the story about pfA s in Thinx underwear, said this is an issue that everyone should be worried about.

“This is an issue that affects all genders. It shouldn’t just be people with uteruses clicking on this headline about menstrual underwear,” c hoy said. “ pfA s is getting into the water we all drink.” p easlee said that when these chemicals get into humans, they are attracted to fatty acid-binding proteins and are transported through the blood. e xposure to pfA s , even at low concentrations, has been shown to harm human health and several pfA s have been proven to cause cancer.

“We want to minimize exposure to these chemicals,” p easlee said. “If it’s not essential, why are we using this molecule that may last forever?” c hoy explained that there is a lot of misinformation about pfA s s he said the idea that pfA s is everywhere, so it’s not an issue, is a misleading narrative. s he also said that many companies don’t tell consumers that their products contain pfA s e ven companies that say they have tested for pfA s may have only tested for some types and not all 9,000 plus variations. c hoy said that Thinx’s eco-friendly advertising was misleading because they were claiming to sell nontoxic products when they were using pfA s p easlee agreed with c hoy and said, “The company was claiming to be environmentally conscious, but they had anti microbials and pfA s in their underwear.”

“ p eople are exposed to pfA s in their food and water, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to reduce our exposure where we can,” c hoy said.

Additionally, c hoy said that some people thought the lawsuit was targeting a small company when Thinx is owned by Kimberlyc lark, a multibillion-dollar enterprise.

The news of the Thinx settlement brought renewed focus to the issue of the use of pfA s in period products and other consumer goods. p easlee explained that attention has to be brought to an issue to enact change. With regulation, “you’d have to have somebody poisoned before you can change things,” he said. “These articles will get people’s attention and they’ll be worried about [ pfA s ], and when people get worried then there’s attention focused on the industry and the industry will have to respond and make changes.” c hoy said that for pfA s regulations to be successful they need to be enforceable, which means there needs to be standards for product testing and staff so problems can be reported.

“I’m hoping that the general public will keep an eye on the laws that are being proposed to regulate pfA s and make sure that these laws have teeth,” she said. “We have to be our own best advocate.”

Contact Caroline Collins at ccolli23@nd.edu

who practiced their volleys. The golf team utilized their indoor putting green, while the cross country team commandeered the upstairs indoor track. The b elles soccer team started with some basic passing drills before moving to a game of ‘red light, green light’ played while dribbling the ball.

“They can see us in our sports and have us as role models. They can see that girls can play sports and excel at them,” junior defender h olly s krip said. “ h opefully, they can use us as inspiration to achieve their goals to play college soccer or any other sport.” o ther s aint m ary’s athletes echoed s krip’s sentiments. “I think that’s really important because, especially at a young age, girls need to feel like they have opportunities to play sports and really feel empowered by other girls,” senior golfer Katherine h opkins said. “I think this camp does that really well. And that’s why I really love it.”

While the athletes took on major leadership roles within the clinic, most of the coaches were there as well to offer support and encouragement for all the participants. They appreciated the opportunity for their players to come together as a team and give back to their community.

“It’s just really an opportunity for us to showcase what athletics and sports can do for girls and and females and women kind of from top to bottom and you know, it’s not just about the sport — it’s about everything else that it teaches them,” basketball coach m elissa m akielski commented.

Tennis head coach d ale c ampbell added a similar sentiment.

“This is a great opportunity to work with these and introduce them to different sports,” he said. “Give them a little bit of success playing a new sport. h oping that they learn the sport, gain some confidence and stay with some healthy activities.”

In addition to the leadership opportunity, b elles athletes relished the opportunity to connect with their teammates outside of the standard practice and competition times, working together to inspire another generation of female athletes.

“It was a lot of fun, especially because we’re in offseason right now, so I got to see all of my teammates and get back together. b ut it’s so cool to see all these little girls just from s outh b end coming in and playing,” b elles volleyball junior c olleen m c c arthy said.

“I loved going to softball camps when I was younger and getting to work with the girls and having role models to follow,” senior softball player c aitlin Traxler said. “It’s something very fun and lighthearted we get to do [as a team] to give back to the community that we love and play for.”

The clinic returned to s aint m ary’s after a two-year absence due to the cov I d pandemic. It was the seventh time in the past nine years that the school was able to host the event. b iek summed up her thoughts on the event succinctly, emphasizing the importance to getting back to host the event after being unable to do so since 2020.

“I think it’s critical that we, as an all-women’s college, host one of these events. It’s just who we are, as all women. b ut the other part of it: it’s the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which was the law that allowed us to have access to sports,” b iek said. “ s o that’s why it’s just critical that we do this, but it’s also with our women. It’s our way to play it forward. s o that, you know, we can just pass on our love of sport to these this next generation of little girls.”

Contact Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu

Jimmy was given a set of orders detailing what he must and must not do or risk being sent back to prison.

“so Jimmy’s got to go find a job,” m iller said. “he’s got a report to a place called the man Workforce development center, and i’m going to follow Jimmy. We’re in detroit and it’s the coldest day of the year. it’s february 2014. awful. one of those days where you see your own breath.” m iller’s anecdote continued: Jimmy is underdressed for the walk at the end of the bus line and the workforce development center turns out to be shut down. m iller reluctantly decides to give Jimmy a ride to another center, whose workforce class happens to be at max capacity. Jimmy puts his name on the waiting list and the pair resolve to regroup at a diner and debrief for the day.

“i’ve got sunny side up eggs and some grits with some hair in it,” m iller said. “a nd here’s Jimmy sitting across from me, thanking me for being there for him. it occurred to me in that moment the position that we put people in.” m iller explained that without the goodwill of a stranger, Jimmy could have missed his appointment and possibly gone back to jail or prison. he said Jimmy lives in what he considered an economy of favors, having to elicit the services of good-willed strangers for a chance at meeting basic human needs.

“he was rejected by the mental health technician in the prison, he’s rejected when he shows up at that front door [of the workforce development center], i almost reject him because i didn’t trust him,” m iller said. “The world has made no room for Jimmy.”

The post incarceration journey home for two other exconvicts, referred to as Zo and ronald, was just as punishing as the way Jimmy and the sinnerman were made to walk, m iller added. m iller’s introduction for Zo lacked as much hope as Jimmy’s: a robber of drug dealers from c hicago, a violent felon who can’t get a job, Zo was facing eviction from a “flop house” 30 days after his release from prison. Two days away from homelessness, seeing “two dope boys talking their shit, flashing their little cash,” Zo breaks down, fending off the urge to relapse into his criminal ways. i n the midst of serving 27 years in prison wrongfully accused of shooting a police officer, ronald’s son was murdered by a 14-year-old boy. Yet ronald, m iller said, wrote to the judge and the prosecutor, advocating for his son’s murderer to be tried as a juvenile so that he can make a life for himself upon turning 21.

“[ronald] decided that even people who cause harm deserved a place in the world,” m iller said. “To be fully human is to make mistakes… a nd that’s our charge to be vulnerable… our question isn’t whether or not it makes us feel good. The question is, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’” figures-wise, m iller drew attention to the growth of the U.s. prison population since 1972, the disproportionate representation of minorities and people with disabilities in the prison system and the revolving door between homelessness and incarceration.

“The jail, the prison is a place where we store the people we’re afraid of,” m iller said. “People we want to throw away, (it is) where we store a surplus population.”

Contact Peter Breen at pbreen2@nd.edu unification would actually entail.

“There hasn’t been much in-depth thinking, in the s outh certainly, about what a united i reland would mean,” Pat Leahy, political editor of The i rish Times, said during an i n The n ews podcast episode. “While you have these very large majorities of people who reflexively say ‘yes, i would like a united i reland,’ the number of people who have, or the proportion of those who have actually thought about what it would mean and what they may be perhaps prepared to do to bring it about and to make it a success, is much, much smaller.” i f i rish unification were to result from a referendum, the new state would have to deal with a large minority of people who might find themselves alienated, Leahy said. The study found an unwillingness of many people in the south to support changes to the political arrangements and political symbols of a potential united i reland in order to accommodate Unionists. r esearchers also conducted a number of focus groups of undecided voters in the north and south to understand the concerns. These include economic consequences of a united i reland, concerns regarding public services and the prospective return to violence, Leahy said. i n addition to questions about identity and related political ideas, Griffin said arins is exploring the ways in which unification would impact the daily lives of those in i reland and n orthern i reland.

“There’s all other sorts of things that matter to people on a day-to-day basis that we’re also studying like infrastructure, transportation, and health systems in the north and south,” Griffin said. “ i s there more cooperation? i s there a way for people to realize that they share an island? This is also the work that we’re doing.”

Contact Gabby Beechert at gbeecher@nd.edu

DIANE PARK | The Observer