Women angered by cost of tampons

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 18

Women angered by cost of tampons

Most women have to put them on the shopping list at least once a month. They rarely appear in coupon books or as specials. In fact, it is only in recent years that people have even begun talking about tampons in public. Now concern about the high price charged for them has reared its head. According to Ms Christine Bird, of The Health Alternatives for Women group in Christchurch, the “absolutely exorbitant" cost of conventional sanitary protection has forced some young women to use sea sponges as an alternative. “But they are not really an alternative. There are problems in terms of toxic shock syndrome and the difficulty of washing them time and time again.” Ms Bird said that while sea sponges were cheaper than tampons, they were no safer to use. There is very little difference in the cost of various brands of sanitary protection. A packet of 60 Carefree tampons retailed from $10.31 at Christchurch supermarkets this week. While they are an item women do not usually think of “shopping

around” for, there were price differences of up to $1 between the four main stores visited by “The Press.” “I suppose the people who can’t afford them just use rags or cloths like our mothers and grandmothers did,” said Ms Bird. “We are concerned about the charge in that it does seem exhorbitant for what the product is." Annoyance at the high cost of tampons was one of the concerns shared by a number of women who called a hotline to the Royal Commission on Social Policy in Wellington last week. Ms Maria Brucker, advisory officer for the Health Department’s women’s health committee, said the department had received letters from women saying that the price of sanitaiy protection was too high, as it was a necessity particular to women. Some of the complainants had suggested that the product should be subsidised by the Government. Such letters are usually replied to by the Trade and Industry Department, which does not agree that a subsidy should be imposed.

; >.vMr Barry’ Fitzgibbon,', managing director of Johnson and Johnson, which manufactures the ‘Carefree’ brand of tampons, said that the cost of the product was not high when compared with that of other sanitary protection. The company had to import the cotton and rayon which the tampons were made from, and these materials had to be blended together on sophisticated machinery in what was quite a labour-intensive operation. Johnson and Johnson make about .50 million tampons each year. “They are not what I would term a ‘cash cow’ by any stretch of the imagination,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.