The Rely Tampon

The Rely Tampon

The Rely Tampon, made by Proctor & Gamble, has been under public scrutiny for years for various reasons. Known mostly for their debated link to the deaths of thirty eight women from Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) and for lawyers charges against them of "suppressing important data that may [have] enhance[d] medical understanding of TSS" (Fielding). The Rely Tampon has become a hot topic and one of the most famous tampons in our history, second only to Tampax.

"It Even Absorbed the Worry!" was the slogan for the Rely Tampon produced by Proctor & Gamble. Rely Tampons were made of cellulose which is very highly absorbent and a polyester foam; this blend of ingredients are not used in tampons on the market today. The Rely tampon was first introduced to the public in 1980 by way of mail. Proctor & Gamble mailed out 60 million free samples of their new product around the United States. Five years prior to it's public release the Rely Tampon was sent out as a test to a certain amount of people, again around the United States. Soon after it's public release the Rely Tampon was taking over, occupying 24 per cent of the tampon market. Many of the advertisements for the Rely Tampon featured women in either white clothes or tight clothes and often both. Such ads featured thin attractive women, mostly with their boyfriends, like this ad for Rely Tampons with the caption: "When the motor conked out, we paddled home. Boy, was I glad I was wearing Rely." (Kohen). These ads also relied on visual aids such as displaying direct views of female buttocks.

The entire debate about the Rely Tampon was full of lawsuits, yet somehow at the same time was shrouded in secrecy and deceit. Proctor & Gamble was going to court over the issue of the Rely Tampon because of the fact that it was believed that information was withheld in regards to the dioxin levels in their tampons. Lack of information on the issue of dioxin in tampons was not because of lack of research in the 1980's, it was because of the editing of information found in research. One example of lack of communication from the research agencies of Proctor & Gamble would be a series of notations from 1989 stating that "the risk of dioxin in tampons can be quite high."(Fielding). As well, this agency stated, "the most effective risk-management strategy would be to assure that tampons contain no dioxin."(Fielding). This was very well done research if the agency had have been responsible, yet like many other researchers in the time of the Rely Tampon they decided to pick and choose what they would show to the public on their findings in researching the tampon. This company left out the following statement; "It appears that the most significant risks [of contracting TSS] may occur in tampon products.''

Proctor & Gamble reacted to the controversy by hiring people to fight for them such as Melvin Stratmeyer. We see the extent of deceit by Proctor & Gamble in this article.

"Melvin Stratmeyer, chief of FDA health sciences, defended the agency's silence on the tampon-dioxin connection. Ð''Tampons pose absolutely no health risk for women, he insisted.' How did he know? The FDA had researched the issue and analyzed the link between dioxin and tampons. But, if they did not actually test any tampons for dioxin--as Stratmeyer freely admitted--where did the raw data supporting this conclusion come from? The tampon industry." (Nolan).

Despite the amount of research done for Proctor & Gamble on their tampons, and even though it has been found that many other researchers twisted their information in favor of Proctor & Gamble, the Rely Tampon was taken off of shelves.

In addition to Proctor & Gamble pulling the Rely Tampon off of consumer shelves, the government made some adjustments to the