Major sanitary pad makers in China are apologising after being accused of selling pads that are shorter than advertised.
It comes amid a storm of anger after viral social media videos showed Chinese women measuring the lengths of sanitary pads from popular brands – showing that most of them fell short of what was stated on their packaging.
The uproar has extended into broader grievances about women being short-changed by feminine hygiene products, which have a history of safety scandals in China.
Chinese women have taken it upon themselves to call out quality concerns in sanitary pads, the most commonly used feminine hygiene product in the country.
In one of the earliest videos, posted on 3 November, a user on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu examined nine brands of sanitary pads with a measuring tape, showing that they all fell short of the length stated on their packaging.
Amid the uproar, an investigation of over 20 different sanitary pads by Chinese news outlet The Paper found that nearly 90% of the products were “shrunken”, measuring at least 10mm shorter than claimed on their packaging. Tucked within most of them were even shorter absorbent layers, which are meant to soak up menstrual flow.
The Paper also reported that while national standards for sanitary pads specify that the products can measure within 4% of advertised lengths, they do not specify the length of the absorbent layer in sanitary pads.
Credit: bbc.com
