Are Teens Really Getting High on Used Tampons?

I can't believe I actually have to write this article. Last week, news reports showed up in Seventeen, TeenVogue, the New York Post and other publications about teens getting high on used tampons. In the New York Post story, they state

Teenagers in Indonesia are collecting menstrual pads and tampons — often of the used variety — and boiling them, allowing the mixture to cool and then imbibing the resulting liquid.

Police have already arrested several minors caught making this menstrual-pad moonshine.

One 14-year-old confessed that he and his buds swig it “morning, afternoon and evening,” the Daily Mail reports.

The National Narcotics Agency in Indonesia says it’s the chlorine used to sanitize menstrual products that’s getting kids tipsy, giving them hallucinations and a feeling of “flying.”

Next thing I know, I'm getting emails, DM's, and texts asking if this is plausible.

Let's Break Down the Tampon Story

It's great click bait. To be honest, I did the same thing with the title of my story. But this takes place in one isolated area in Indonesia. Our last big bizarre drug scare came from kids in Zambia huffing Jenkem. What is Jenkem you ask? Jenkem is where the Zambian teens were peeing and pooping in bags and then inhaling the fermented substance. The Collier County Sheriff's Department in Florida put out a bulletin about Jenkem and the story took off. There has not been one case of reported Jenkem use in the United States. We have readers from countries all over the world and it sounds like there weren't another other reported stories except the one in Zambia. The Jenkem story died quickly because, well, no one want's to huff their own poop to get high.

Can Used Tampons Make You High?

Now we have used tampons. Police in Indonesia state the kids are getting high on the chlorine used to sanitize the menstrual products. So the question begs to be answered: Can you get high on chlorine? First, let's look at what happens when you are overexposed to chlorine:

• Blurred vision

• Burning sensation in the nose, throat, and eyes

• Coughing

• Chest tightness

• Difficulty breathing / shortness of breath

• Fluid in the lungs

• Nausea and vomiting

• Watery eyes

• Wheezing

• Burning pain and blisters on the skin (exposure to chlorine gas)

• Skin injuries similar to frostbite (exposure to liquid chlorine)

People use drugs for a variety of reasons. Many ordinary substances can make you "high." Even nutmeg will make you high if you take enough (it's a hallucinogen for those that want to know). Would someone consider the symptoms above intoxicating? I guess it could. 

Don't Get Worked Up!

Don't get worked up over what is happening in Indonesia. Kids aren't going to start huffing used tampons and there's no need to lock them up. There are so many other substances to get high off of, this is not one teens will flock to. It makes a great story, but it will die off just like Jenkem did.