① The topic of "Category C sanitary pads" continues to ferment, with disputes focusing on pH value and formaldehyde content; ② Reporters obtained inspection reports from 8 sanitary pad brands, most of which showed results meeting Category A; ③ Categories A and C are originally textile standards, but indicators such as pH value are also adopted for sanitary pads; ④ It is precisely based on the pH value and formaldehyde indicators that netizens question the sanitary pad standard only reaches Category C.
On November 21, the Financial Associated Press reported (by journalist Luo Yichen) that recently, the topic of "Category C sanitary pads" has been fermenting, leading to significant skepticism regarding sanitary pad product standards. On November 21, the Financial Associated Press contacted 10 sanitary pad brands, among which 8 brands presented inspection reports, showing that the controversial key indicators of pH value and formaldehyde content have all reached the highest "Category A" standard, indicating the actual situation is far better than the so-called "Category C" standard.
Among the major listed companies, chongqing baiya sanitary products (003006.SZ), zhuzhou qianjin pharmaceutical (600479.SH), winner medical (300888.SZ), hangzhou haoyue personal care (605009.SH), and hengan int'l (01044.HK) all have associated sanitary pad brands, and these brands also showed inspection reports to the Financial Associated Press.
The focus of the contradiction: key quality indicators are suspected to have low requirements.
It is reported that the origin of the "Category C sanitary pads" topic is due to netizens discovering that the current national standard for sanitary pads (GB/T 8939-2018) requires a pH value of 4.0-9.0 and formaldehyde content of ≤75mg/kg, and the numerical requirements for these two indicators are the same as those for so-called Category C and B standards in the National Basic Safety Technical Standard for Textiles (GB 18401-2010).
Screenshot of the National Basic Safety Technical Standard for Textiles (GB 18401-2010)
In the National Basic Safety Technical Standard for Textiles, the aforementioned categories A, B, and C correspond to specific products, i.e., products for infants and young children must meet Category A requirements, typical products include diapers and bibs; products that directly contact the skin must meet Category B requirements, typical products include underwear, socks, and bed sheets; products that do not directly contact the skin must meet Category C requirements, typical products include sweaters, curtains, and wall fabrics.
As a result, in some expressions of netizens, due to the same pH value requirements of sanitary pads and Category C textiles, the safety of sanitary pads has been equated with that of curtains and wall fabrics, leading to widespread dissemination of this information on social media, causing considerable anxiety.
Amidst the rising controversy, customer service representatives from sanitary napkin brands responded, emphasizing that sanitary napkins and textiles belong to different product categories with different national standards and that there is no ABC classification in sanitary napkin product standards. However, this explanation did not dispel netizens' doubts, as they insisted that based solely on the two key indicators of pH and formaldehyde content, the requirements for sanitary napkins are indeed consistent with B and C category requirements in textiles, accusing that the label 'sanitary napkin C category' is not without reason.
Actual situation: Brand testing results are better than standards.
With questions about the actual quality of sanitary napkins, on November 21, reporters from the Financial Association contacted 10 brand flagship stores in succession, of which 8 brand customer services presented testing reports for sanitary napkin products.
Partial testing data statistics from 10 sanitary napkin brands have been compiled by reporters from the Financial Association.
It is reported that in these 8 inspection reports, apart from the reports of 'Jieting' and 'Tayanshe' which did not specify the exact values of pH and formaldehyde content, the other 6 reports all indicated the specific test values for the main indicators, with pH results all around 6, meeting the requirement of 4-7.5 for A category textiles, while in the formaldehyde test, all 6 reports showed not detected, which is below the detection limit of 10mg/kg, and this result is also significantly better than the requirement of formaldehyde ≤ 20mg/kg for A category textiles.
It is worth noting that although some netizens conflate the standards for sanitary napkins and textiles based on pH and other indicators, in practice, the quality and safety of sanitary napkin products are primarily determined by the 'National Standard for Sanitary Napkins (Panty Liners)' (GB/T 8939-2018) and the 'Hygienic Standards for Disposable Sanitary Products' (GB 15979-2002); both the inspection reports provided by the aforementioned brands and the labels on sanitary napkin products' packaging reference these two standards.
The original text of these two standards shows that the requirements for sanitary napkin products include raw materials, microbiological indicators, product physicochemical indicators, packaging requirements, as well as length deviation, quality deviation, and many other aspects. Currently, the much-debated pH and formaldehyde content are only a small part of these requirements. Although these two indicators are pointed out to have low requirements, the actual situation shown in the testing reports provided by brands is far above the standard.
Regarding the controversy surrounding the standards for sanitary napkins, reporters from the Financial Association also interviewed a senior executive from a leading company. Her feedback was that the relevant product standards are set by a specialized standards committee, and from a corporate perspective, she believes that the so-called leniency of standards is more to consider that this is just an industry entry threshold. In addition, the National Standard Information Public Service Platform indicates that the national standard project 'Sanitary Napkins (Panty Liners)' with the project number 20241954-T-607 is currently being drafted, which will revise the existing GB/T 8939-2018 standard. The project cycle is 16 months, with the submission date set for June 28, 2024.
