Labeling people as “Illegal Immigrants” benefits capitalism and corporations.

queernonywolf:

As long as America continues to threaten migrants, it will benefit economically. Now, many naysayers and tea partiers will disagree — the rhetoric of “they took our jobs!” etc. The fact is, as long as people are threatened about their paperwork status on being here, they can be mistreated and forced to work shit pay — and companies routinely do this. It is cheaper and more “cost effective” for them to keep a lid on the status of their workers so they don’t have to pay for things like health benefits, an actual fair wage, and compensation for injuries (since majority of the jobs in factories and agriculture are labor-intensive and full of risk).

One of the best reasons to buy organic when it comes to fruit that must be hand-picked (all berries other than cranberries; grapes; cherries, apricots and many other stone fruits; most melon varieties; figs; and the list goes on, but you can usually infer from how delicate the fruit in question is) — besides the fact that those are also some of the most-poisoned produce, between insecticides and herbicides and fungicides, and besides the fact that they lead to significant soil and water pollution when grown “conventionally” — is that it’s common for agribusinesses, and even some smaller farms, to spray assorted poisons on fruit fields while there are migrant workers in the field picking fruit.

Yeah; on top of

  • the illegally-long shifts without breaks;
  • the inadequate provision of water, for drinking or otherwise;
  • the inadequate provision of sanitary facilities, i.e. toilets or port-a-potties (even after multiple e. coli outbreaks led to thousands of dollars’ worth of produce needing to be recalled and destroyed, and thousands of dollars more lost due to consumers’ fears after the outbreaks were contained);
  • the complete lack of overtime pay, sick pay, vacations, etc.;
  • the complete lack of workers’-compensation coverage for injuries or illnesses due to / during work;
  • the complete lack of healthcare coverage;
  • the typical lack of a first-aid station on premises, or even a handful of band-aids, despite frequent occurences of heatstroke, heat exhaustion, severe dehydration, heart attack, and other work- and/or working-conditions-related medical emergencies among farm workers;
  • and the illegally-low pay;
  • migrant workers get poison sprayed directly onto them, typically without any warning, and without any way to wash themselves off until many hours later.

There’s a reason why so many migrant farm workers are undocumented (“illegals”); most people who are citizens, or legal residents with work permits, won’t work under illegally-dangerous, illegally-unpleasant conditions for illegally-low pay!

If you want strawberries badly enough to pay $2 for them, then you probably want them badly enough to pay $3 or $4 for them…

(via feministwerewolf)

Source: dansphalluspalace

shadowen: stickthisbig: royalfan: benito-cereno: calamityjon: The Avengers opens in theaters in the US on May 4th, and it’s going to do blockbuster business. The individual films featuring these characters have already  grossed more than $2.2 billion dollars - that’s greater than the Gross National Product of almost half the countries on Earth - and it’s not unlikely that The Avengers will earn a hundred million dollars on its opening day alone. This represents a pretty big payday to a lot of people - the actors, obviously, will take home pretty big paychecks. The director and the writers are well-compensated, and certainly the executives who greenlighted this project get to sit back and rake in large bonuses and healthy salaries. Well, you know where this is going; shamefully, the people who aren’t making a big profit from these movies are the people (and the families of the people) who did the essential work of creating them in the first place. It’s not just Jack Kirby, either, or (Black Widow and Hawkeye co-creator) Don Heck, but also Steve Engelhart, Peter David, Herb Trimpe, Jim Steranko, Roy Thomas and dozens more - the artists and writers who refined and defined the characters appearing in this movie, who fleshed out the original creations and molded them into the figures we cheer for when we see them on the screen. Some very sensible people are calling for a boycott of this film on those grounds, but I think it’s fairly obvious that a boycott of idealistic comic fans isn’t going to accomplish much - it’s not only comic book fans who’ll be dropping a collective billion dollars over the next eight weeks to see this movie, it’s going to be a lot of movie-goers who haven’t read a comic since they were kids, much less know anything of the controversy. Plus, of course, you - the collective “you”, representing comic book fans all over the world - want to see this movie. And you’re going to, most likely, right? Even though you know of the morally shady practices of Marvel towards its creators, they’ve got you hooked. Don’t be ashamed, they’ve had you hooked for years. It’s what they do. So how about this: You’re probably going to go see The Avengers and, judging by the early reviews, you’ll probably enjoy it. How about - as a thank you to the creators who brought you these characters in the first place, who gave you something to enjoy so much - you match your ticket price as a donation to The Hero Initiative?  THI is a charity which provides essential financial assistance to comic book professionals who have fallen on hard times; for decades, the comic industry provided no financial safety net to its employees, most of whom it regarded only as freelancers and journeymen, meaning they were offered no health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no retirement plans - none of the financial support most of us enjoy from our jobs and careers. A small donation will help this agency provide a valuable safety net in times of need to these beloved entertainers. I don’t plan on seeing The Avengers, but I’ve donated $15 - the price of a 3-D ticket - to Hero. If every concerned comic fan - every superhero aficionado who learned to live by the lessons of altruism and sacrifice taught by these comics - donated the price of their ticket, well, it may not hit a billion dollars but it’ll bring in a lot of money for a good and relevant cause. One last note: Remember what Spider-Man always says? “With great power comes great responsibility”. The lesson in that is that everyone has great power. Spider-Man’s great power is being able to lift a bus. Your great power is the ability to help good causes do good work for good reasons - so why not go be a superhero instead of just watching them on the screen… (PS: “Liking” this post is nice, thank you, but reblogging/retweeting it helps get the message out and would be even more appreciated) Fully endorsed. Not going to lie, I don’t know much about this issue but I wanted to reblog this so people in the fandom can check it out for themselves. This is something to keep in mind- and something that I, admittedly, don’t. This has been going on since, uh, Siegel and Shuster, and it absolutely hasn’t gotten better with age. If you want to support THI and like fancy things, they also have a partnership with BPAL: the profits from Heroine, Sachs and Violens go to them (and let me note that Sachs is my favorite scent ever, and that, at least last year at D*C, if you bought the set they would go find Peter David and George Perez and have them sign it for you, and yes, I FLIPPED MY SHIT). I’d also like to put in a PSA for the CBLDF, another important organization for comics creators that could use your support. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Jeremy Renner gifs. THI also has two TPBs out featuring collections of short comics from different creators. The books are good and proceeds benefit THI. I chose shadowen’s reblog specifically for the ‘Buy Cool Stuff and Do Good At the Same Time! angle. Hi, tumblr stranger! Thanks for adding more helpful info to this post. For convenience, all the links from above grouped together & annotated: The Hero Initiative, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to helping comics creators in need due to the lack of health and disability insurance availability/affordability in the comics industry; Heroine, Sachs and Violens, 3 perfume-oil blends created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, with proceeds to benefit THI; the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, providing legal assistance to readers, retailers and creators of comics facing comics-related prosecution, and educating law enforcement and the public about the legal status of comics art; and finally, Graham Crackers Comics, THI’s official retail partner, lists a few dozen TPBs, individual issues and related merchandise whose sales benefit THI (though I couldn’t identify the specific TPBs shadowen was referring to). After a few days of my darling dearest growling about how making the very good point that many appeals for grass-roots donations seem to cluster and/or increase in frequency at the end of the month, precisely when many of the poorest Americans can least afford to donate, I decided to schedule my reblog for the beginning of the month, even though it’s still the 29th as I write this. ;·) Also, for those of us to whom it makes a difference: The majority of the comics creators who The Hero Initiative has helped found themselves in dire financial straits due to unforeseen physical disability — and, as most PWDs know (at least here in the States), getting financial and medical aid in situations like that takes so long we’re typically ruined by the time the help comes through… and, even then, what help we get is based on politicians’ guesses and compromises about how much help people ‘should’ need, rather than how much anyone actually needs. THI keeps roofs over creators’ heads and food on their tables in addition to ensuring they can pay for whatever medical care they need, and doesn’t make them wade through months of paperwork first. [image description: a promotional image for the Avengers film, showing, from left to right, Scarlett Johannson as Agent Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow; Samuel L. Jackson as Director Nick Fury; Robert Downey, Jr. (unseen inside costume) as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man; Mark Ruffalo as Dr. Bruce Banner, depicted in Hulk form (Hulk voiced by Lou Ferrigno); Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, aka Captain America; Chris Hemsworth as Thor; and Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye.]
Pop-upView Separately

shadowen:

stickthisbig:

royalfan:

benito-cereno:

calamityjon:

The Avengers opens in theaters in the US on May 4th, and it’s going to do blockbuster business. The individual films featuring these characters have already  grossed more than $2.2 billion dollars - that’s greater than the Gross National Product of almost half the countries on Earth - and it’s not unlikely that The Avengers will earn a hundred million dollars on its opening day alone.

This represents a pretty big payday to a lot of people - the actors, obviously, will take home pretty big paychecks. The director and the writers are well-compensated, and certainly the executives who greenlighted this project get to sit back and rake in large bonuses and healthy salaries.

Well, you know where this is going; shamefully, the people who aren’t making a big profit from these movies are the people (and the families of the people) who did the essential work of creating them in the first place. It’s not just Jack Kirby, either, or (Black Widow and Hawkeye co-creator) Don Heck, but also Steve Engelhart, Peter David, Herb Trimpe, Jim Steranko, Roy Thomas and dozens more - the artists and writers who refined and defined the characters appearing in this movie, who fleshed out the original creations and molded them into the figures we cheer for when we see them on the screen.

Some very sensible people are calling for a boycott of this film on those grounds, but I think it’s fairly obvious that a boycott of idealistic comic fans isn’t going to accomplish much - it’s not only comic book fans who’ll be dropping a collective billion dollars over the next eight weeks to see this movie, it’s going to be a lot of movie-goers who haven’t read a comic since they were kids, much less know anything of the controversy.

Plus, of course, you - the collective “you”, representing comic book fans all over the world - want to see this movie. And you’re going to, most likely, right? Even though you know of the morally shady practices of Marvel towards its creators, they’ve got you hooked. Don’t be ashamed, they’ve had you hooked for years. It’s what they do.

So how about this: You’re probably going to go see The Avengers and, judging by the early reviews, you’ll probably enjoy it. How about - as a thank you to the creators who brought you these characters in the first place, who gave you something to enjoy so much - you match your ticket price as a donation to The Hero Initiative? 

THI is a charity which provides essential financial assistance to comic book professionals who have fallen on hard times; for decades, the comic industry provided no financial safety net to its employees, most of whom it regarded only as freelancers and journeymen, meaning they were offered no health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no retirement plans - none of the financial support most of us enjoy from our jobs and careers. A small donation will help this agency provide a valuable safety net in times of need to these beloved entertainers.

I don’t plan on seeing The Avengers, but I’ve donated $15 - the price of a 3-D ticket - to Hero. If every concerned comic fan - every superhero aficionado who learned to live by the lessons of altruism and sacrifice taught by these comics - donated the price of their ticket, well, it may not hit a billion dollars but it’ll bring in a lot of money for a good and relevant cause.

One last note: Remember what Spider-Man always says? “With great power comes great responsibility”. The lesson in that is that everyone has great power. Spider-Man’s great power is being able to lift a bus. Your great power is the ability to help good causes do good work for good reasons - so why not go be a superhero instead of just watching them on the screen…

(PS: “Liking” this post is nice, thank you, but reblogging/retweeting it helps get the message out and would be even more appreciated)

Fully endorsed.

Not going to lie, I don’t know much about this issue but I wanted to reblog this so people in the fandom can check it out for themselves.

This is something to keep in mind- and something that I, admittedly, don’t. This has been going on since, uh, Siegel and Shuster, and it absolutely hasn’t gotten better with age.

If you want to support THI and like fancy things, they also have a partnership with BPAL: the profits from Heroine, Sachs and Violens go to them (and let me note that Sachs is my favorite scent ever, and that, at least last year at D*C, if you bought the set they would go find Peter David and George Perez and have them sign it for you, and yes, I FLIPPED MY SHIT). I’d also like to put in a PSA for the CBLDF, another important organization for comics creators that could use your support.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Jeremy Renner gifs.

THI also has two TPBs out featuring collections of short comics from different creators. The books are good and proceeds benefit THI.

I chose shadowen’s reblog specifically for the ‘Buy Cool Stuff and Do Good At the Same Time! angle. Hi, tumblr stranger! Thanks for adding more helpful info to this post.

For convenience, all the links from above grouped together & annotated:

  • The Hero Initiative, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to helping comics creators in need due to the lack of health and disability insurance availability/affordability in the comics industry;
  • Heroine, Sachs and Violens, 3 perfume-oil blends created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, with proceeds to benefit THI;
  • the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, providing legal assistance to readers, retailers and creators of comics facing comics-related prosecution, and educating law enforcement and the public about the legal status of comics art;
  • and finally, Graham Crackers Comics, THI’s official retail partner, lists a few dozen TPBs, individual issues and related merchandise whose sales benefit THI (though I couldn’t identify the specific TPBs shadowen was referring to).

After a few days of my darling dearest growling about how making the very good point that many appeals for grass-roots donations seem to cluster and/or increase in frequency at the end of the month, precisely when many of the poorest Americans can least afford to donate, I decided to schedule my reblog for the beginning of the month, even though it’s still the 29th as I write this. ;·)

Also, for those of us to whom it makes a difference: The majority of the comics creators who The Hero Initiative has helped found themselves in dire financial straits due to unforeseen physical disability — and, as most PWDs know (at least here in the States), getting financial and medical aid in situations like that takes so long we’re typically ruined by the time the help comes through… and, even then, what help we get is based on politicians’ guesses and compromises about how much help people ‘should’ need, rather than how much anyone actually needs. THI keeps roofs over creators’ heads and food on their tables in addition to ensuring they can pay for whatever medical care they need, and doesn’t make them wade through months of paperwork first.

[image description: a promotional image for the Avengers film, showing, from left to right, Scarlett Johannson as Agent Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow; Samuel L. Jackson as Director Nick Fury; Robert Downey, Jr. (unseen inside costume) as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man; Mark Ruffalo as Dr. Bruce Banner, depicted in Hulk form (Hulk voiced by Lou Ferrigno); Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, aka Captain America; Chris Hemsworth as Thor; and Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye.]

Source: calamityjon

#firstworldproblems is a #firstworldproblem hashtag.

Harry McCracken, replying to a comment left on his article “I Bought Something from a Best Buy Vending Machine, and It Didn’t Go So Well” at techland.Time.com

A bit of nice, light humor for a change.
(Even if it does come attached to news that the Best Buy brand is even less trustworthy than we’ve come to expect.)

shortformblog:futurejournalismproject: Of Total Income Increase in 2010… Steven Rattner, a Wall Street executive and New York Times Op-Ed contributor, writes: In 2010, as the nation continued to recover from the recession, a dizzying 93 percent of the additional income created in the country that year, compared to 2009 — $288 billion — went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with at least $352,000 in income. That delivered an average single-year pay increase of 11.6 percent to each of these households. Still more astonishing was the extent to which the super rich got rich faster than the merely rich. In 2010, 37 percent of these additional earnings went to just the top 0.01 percent, a teaspoon-size collection of about 15,000 households with average incomes of $23.8 million. These fortunate few saw their incomes rise by 21.5 percent. The bottom 99 percent received a microscopic $80 increase in pay per person in 2010, after adjusting for inflation. The top 1 percent, whose average income is $1,019,089, had an 11.6 percent increase in income. Steven Rattner, The New York Times. The Rich Get Even Richer. Well, shit. Fuck the racism of the “Occupy” people who thought it made more sense to make Trayvon Martin’s murder about “the 99%” than to have included PoC in “their” movement at any time before the first hoodie demonstrations… …but fuck this, too. These people crashed the economy, destroyed the housing market, put hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes; got handed a TRILLION with a T dollars because they said the economy would collapse otherwise; got to keep all of that money — our money — even after they just went ahead and let the economy collapse by refusing to make the business loans the bailout was supposed to let them keep making, causing bankruptcies, which increased unemployment, which increased foreclosures, while even people who can afford mortgage payments still can’t get a bank to approve them for one… …and they’re just, what? Keeping all that money in giant swimming vaults like Scrooge McFuckingDuck?! Because they should be able to create plenty enough jobs with even one percent [heh] of the additional money they made that year that it’d help nearly everyone. Motherfuckers prefer things this way, though. THEY ARE LITERALLY PROFITING FROM THE MISERY OF EVERYONE ELSE.
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shortformblog:futurejournalismproject:

Of Total Income Increase in 2010…

Steven Rattner, a Wall Street executive and New York Times Op-Ed contributor, writes:

In 2010, as the nation continued to recover from the recession, a dizzying 93 percent of the additional income created in the country that year, compared to 2009 — $288 billion — went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with at least $352,000 in income. That delivered an average single-year pay increase of 11.6 percent to each of these households.

Still more astonishing was the extent to which the super rich got rich faster than the merely rich. In 2010, 37 percent of these additional earnings went to just the top 0.01 percent, a teaspoon-size collection of about 15,000 households with average incomes of $23.8 million. These fortunate few saw their incomes rise by 21.5 percent.

The bottom 99 percent received a microscopic $80 increase in pay per person in 2010, after adjusting for inflation. The top 1 percent, whose average income is $1,019,089, had an 11.6 percent increase in income.

Steven Rattner, The New York Times. The Rich Get Even Richer.

Well, shit.

Fuck the racism of the “Occupy” people who thought it made more sense to make Trayvon Martin’s murder about “the 99%” than to have included PoC in “their” movement at any time before the first hoodie demonstrations…

…but fuck this, too.

These people crashed the economy, destroyed the housing market, put hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes; got handed a TRILLION with a T dollars because they said the economy would collapse otherwise; got to keep all of that money — our money — even after they just went ahead and let the economy collapse by refusing to make the business loans the bailout was supposed to let them keep making, causing bankruptcies, which increased unemployment, which increased foreclosures, while even people who can afford mortgage payments still can’t get a bank to approve them for one…

…and they’re just, what? Keeping all that money in giant swimming vaults like Scrooge McFuckingDuck?! Because they should be able to create plenty enough jobs with even one percent [heh] of the additional money they made that year that it’d help nearly everyone.

Motherfuckers prefer things this way, though.

THEY ARE LITERALLY PROFITING FROM THE MISERY OF EVERYONE ELSE.

(via formerlyfannybaws)

Source: futurejournalismproject

chaoscomix: deviouslydoomed: nogoodnicklowermiddleclassbrat: catcherintherhine: A woman recently went to use a Kotex brand tampon and fortunately was a little clumsy getting it out of the packaging and discovered patches of mold growing all over the product that was seconds away from being inserted inside her. She wrote to the manufacturer and was horrified to discover that this is fairly common and received nothing more than a cookie cutter apology and some coupons to buy more of their products. I urge anyone who uses this brand or other brands of tampons to pay closer attention when using or to perhaps consider switching to a different type of reusable product such as a Diva Cup or washable cloth liners. This is absolutely repulsive and although I no longer have periods, I felt I should inform my followers about this for their own health and safety.  Source WHAT. thank god i hate tampons anyways. I AM SO DISTURBED AND SO FULL OF RAGE RIGHT NOW NOTE: LOTS OF INFORMATION AND LINKS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THIS REBLOG. “She wrote to the manufacturer and was horrified to discover that this is fairly common” “was horrified to discover that this is fairly common” “this is fairly common” So wait. Modern tampon manufacturers have been ‘improving’ their products for over seventy-five years, constantly redesigning their packaging (and occasionally even its contents) to convince consumers their product is better than the competition’s, using enticing words like Pearl and U to communicate how high-end and high-tech their cotton-wads-on-strings are… …but not only have none of the standard supermarket brands ever stopped bleaching the cotton used in their products — despite mounds of evidence that chlorine residue is harmful to vaginal mucosa… …they KNOW that there’s LIKELY to be FUNGUS on and in the tampon HIDDEN UNDER THE APPLICATOR, but they haven’t even TRIED to prevent the mold growth OR warn women that it’s a possible hazard of using their products?! Possibly Kotex is hoping to avoid another costly recall like the one that happened only FOUR MONTHS AGO, in that case due to bacterial contamination rather than fungal. Hopefully the just-discovered fungal contamination isn’t a side-effect of their using stronger anti-bacterial processes in order to prevent a recurrence of the bacteria issue? I already checked to make sure this wasn’t just an urban legend gone out of control. Here is a news report from the woman’s local TV station. Just an FYI: O.B. (bleached supermarket brand), Natracare (unbleached organic cotton, usually only available at ‘health-food’ specialty shops), and every other no-applicator tampon brand I’ve come across, package their tampons inside clear shrink-wrap, making it virtually impossible for a woman to overlook it if her tampon has been moldering inside its box. If you go visit the U by Kotex website, there’s an add-your-own-comment feature right on the page. They do seem to have someone monitoring the comments section and deleting any critical comments fairly regularly, though. (And then at least sometimes putting them back? Screenshot.) However, by going to the site, you might also be selected to participate in a market-research survey — which to be frank is long, tedious, and boring — but offers the opportunity to tell Kotex what you think of their behavior in a forum they’re less likely to brush off. The full text of Kotex’s initial response to the woman who discovered the moldy tampon can be found at parrforthecourse.com, her personal blog. Choice quote: “In instances where it has been found, we conducted tests on the product involved and have found the mold to be a common environmental species that carries no health risk.  The vegetative mold is similar in nature to mold on vegetables or in baked goods.” [emphasis mine] Let me just address for a moment the amazingly inaccurate excuse Kotex gave for not caring that their tampons may be filled and/or covered with FUNGUS:  Penicillin is a bread mold, and millions of people are allergic to penicillins. Even people not allergic to penicillins specifically can experience allergic or otherwise adverse reactions to other types of fungus, with symptoms which often do not include anaphylaxis (swelling of the throat) and thus are frequently not recognized as an allergic reaction. For example, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which I have, causes flu-like symptoms whenever I’m exposed to most molds — unlikely to be life-threatening, but always serious enough that I had to miss a day or more of school / work. Fungal spores which might be safe in your environment or on your skin (or even in your digestive tract) are not necessarily safe to ingest, inhale, or allow to come into contact with any mucous membrane — eyes, sinuses, mouth, urethra, prepuce, vulva, vagina, rectum — or open wound, including cuts, scrapes and burns. In many cases it isn’t the fungus itself that causes adverse reactions, as opposed to compounds they produce called mycotoxins, which do not break down over time or when heated or even digested… meaning that, the longer the mold has had to grow, the more harmful it can be, even after the fungal colony is completely killed and/or sterilized. Fungus species and concentrations which may be safe for healthy individuals to come in contact with can be deadly to immunocompromised people, including not just HIV-positive people and those taking anti-rejection drugs after an organ transplant, but also people with many autoimmune diseases, including everything from asthma through celiac disease to lupus, rheumatism and vasculitis. Vaginas contain a delicate balance of microflora (both funguses and bacteria, mostly not harmful when kept in check by competing microorganisms); upsetting this balance is what leads to candida overgrowth aka yeast infections, and to bacterial vaginosis, which is frequently mistaken for a yeast infection, depending on which way the balance tips; obviously, introducing a foreign fungal population will upset that balance. Horrified? Do please reblog, but also e-mail and/or telephone everyone you know who has female reproductive anatomy (even if they no longer or never did menstruate, because they’ll know other people who do) with this information. Fungus in tampons is seriously dangerous. Get the word out. 
View Separately

chaoscomix:

deviouslydoomed:

nogoodnicklowermiddleclassbrat:

catcherintherhine:

A woman recently went to use a Kotex brand tampon and fortunately was a little clumsy getting it out of the packaging and discovered patches of mold growing all over the product that was seconds away from being inserted inside her. She wrote to the manufacturer and was horrified to discover that this is fairly common and received nothing more than a cookie cutter apology and some coupons to buy more of their products.

I urge anyone who uses this brand or other brands of tampons to pay closer attention when using or to perhaps consider switching to a different type of reusable product such as a Diva Cup or washable cloth liners. This is absolutely repulsive and although I no longer have periods, I felt I should inform my followers about this for their own health and safety. 

Source

WHAT.

thank god i hate tampons anyways.

I AM SO DISTURBED AND SO FULL OF RAGE RIGHT NOW

NOTE: LOTS OF INFORMATION AND LINKS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THIS REBLOG.

“She wrote to the manufacturer and was horrified to discover that this is fairly common”

“was horrified to discover that this is fairly common”

“this is fairly common”

So wait. Modern tampon manufacturers have been ‘improving’ their products for over seventy-five years, constantly redesigning their packaging (and occasionally even its contents) to convince consumers their product is better than the competition’s, using enticing words like Pearl and U to communicate how high-end and high-tech their cotton-wads-on-strings are…

…but not only have none of the standard supermarket brands ever stopped bleaching the cotton used in their products — despite mounds of evidence that chlorine residue is harmful to vaginal mucosa…

…they KNOW that there’s LIKELY to be FUNGUS on and in the tampon HIDDEN UNDER THE APPLICATOR, but they haven’t even TRIED to prevent the mold growth OR warn women that it’s a possible hazard of using their products?!

Possibly Kotex is hoping to avoid another costly recall like the one that happened only FOUR MONTHS AGO, in that case due to bacterial contamination rather than fungal. Hopefully the just-discovered fungal contamination isn’t a side-effect of their using stronger anti-bacterial processes in order to prevent a recurrence of the bacteria issue?

I already checked to make sure this wasn’t just an urban legend gone out of control. Here is a news report from the woman’s local TV station.

Just an FYI: O.B. (bleached supermarket brand), Natracare (unbleached organic cotton, usually only available at ‘health-food’ specialty shops), and every other no-applicator tampon brand I’ve come across, package their tampons inside clear shrink-wrap, making it virtually impossible for a woman to overlook it if her tampon has been moldering inside its box.

If you go visit the U by Kotex website, there’s an add-your-own-comment feature right on the page. They do seem to have someone monitoring the comments section and deleting any critical comments fairly regularly, though. (And then at least sometimes putting them back? Screenshot.) However, by going to the site, you might also be selected to participate in a market-research survey — which to be frank is long, tedious, and boring — but offers the opportunity to tell Kotex what you think of their behavior in a forum they’re less likely to brush off.

The full text of Kotex’s initial response to the woman who discovered the moldy tampon can be found at parrforthecourse.com, her personal blog. Choice quote:

“In instances where it has been found, we conducted tests on the product involved and have found the mold to be a common environmental species that carries no health risk.  The vegetative mold is similar in nature to mold on vegetables or in baked goods.” [emphasis mine]

Let me just address for a moment the amazingly inaccurate excuse Kotex gave for not caring that their tampons may be filled and/or covered with FUNGUS: 

  • Penicillin is a bread mold, and millions of people are allergic to penicillins.
  • Even people not allergic to penicillins specifically can experience allergic or otherwise adverse reactions to other types of fungus, with symptoms which often do not include anaphylaxis (swelling of the throat) and thus are frequently not recognized as an allergic reaction. For example, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which I have, causes flu-like symptoms whenever I’m exposed to most molds — unlikely to be life-threatening, but always serious enough that I had to miss a day or more of school / work.
  • Fungal spores which might be safe in your environment or on your skin (or even in your digestive tract) are not necessarily safe to ingest, inhale, or allow to come into contact with any mucous membrane — eyes, sinuses, mouth, urethra, prepuce, vulva, vagina, rectum — or open wound, including cuts, scrapes and burns.
  • In many cases it isn’t the fungus itself that causes adverse reactions, as opposed to compounds they produce called mycotoxins, which do not break down over time or when heated or even digested… meaning that, the longer the mold has had to grow, the more harmful it can be, even after the fungal colony is completely killed and/or sterilized.
  • Fungus species and concentrations which may be safe for healthy individuals to come in contact with can be deadly to immunocompromised people, including not just HIV-positive people and those taking anti-rejection drugs after an organ transplant, but also people with many autoimmune diseases, including everything from asthma through celiac disease to lupus, rheumatism and vasculitis.
  • Vaginas contain a delicate balance of microflora (both funguses and bacteria, mostly not harmful when kept in check by competing microorganisms); upsetting this balance is what leads to candida overgrowth aka yeast infections, and to bacterial vaginosis, which is frequently mistaken for a yeast infection, depending on which way the balance tips; obviously, introducing a foreign fungal population will upset that balance.

Horrified? Do please reblog, but also e-mail and/or telephone everyone you know who has female reproductive anatomy (even if they no longer or never did menstruate, because they’ll know other people who do) with this information. Fungus in tampons is seriously dangerous. Get the word out. 

(via stefanyd)

Source: thecatcherintherhine