Our Approach to Product Testing and Safety
Period Swimwear USA News
December 08, 2023 / Team Period Swimwear USA
At Period Swimwear USA, we take immense pride in the trust our customers place in us. You trust us with your bodies, you trust us to share your stories, and above all—you trust us to create swimwear that is comfortable, safe, and effective.
As part of that trust, we are committed to doing everything in our power to ensure that we do not intentionally use toxic or harmful chemicals in our products. We believe in being open and honest about what this promise truly means. In response to global concerns regarding a potential link between the period underwear category and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), especially given the water-repellent nature of certain products in this category, we began routine testing for these substances in January 2020. We also started testing for organic fluorine, which is a key marker for PFAS.
Since January 2020, we have been sharing examples of our test results with our community and will continue to do so. These results are from leading testing labs, and as you will see, neither PFAS nor organic fluorine was detected within the testing limits. We will continue to routinely update our blog with results from our most recent tests, which are part of our stringent quality control procedures. The most recent results, from December 2023, used testing limits of 0.01 - 1 parts per million (ppm) for PFAS testing and 20 ppm for organic fluorine testing.
Ensuring our products are safe and that our customers understand the science behind them is no small feat. We will continue to monitor the complex and evolving world of PFAS—a vast group of chemicals that governments, researchers, and companies are still working to fully define and understand.
These complexities are part of the reason we have publicly advocated for increased PFAS regulation and education. The bottom line is that the best we can do at Period Swimwear USA is to source quality materials and test them, along with finished garments, to help ensure PFAS are not intentionally used in their manufacture. No company can guarantee that a product will reach customers completely free of PFAS due to the omnipresence of these chemicals in the environment—they can be found in water, air, soil, and even breast milk. Additionally, they can enter the supply chain, making it possible for trace levels of PFAS or PFAS-like chemicals to inadvertently find their way into products.
Overview of Our Sourcing and Testing Protocols for Our Leakproof Products:
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Quality Fabrics: We begin with efforts to source high-quality fabrics, many of which are evaluated by an independent third party for certain regulated and non-regulated substances. We also conduct our own testing of the fabrics for specific PFAS and organic fluorine. Only fabrics that meet our strict standards are used.
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Supplier Contracts: We contractually prohibit our third-party textile and manufacturing suppliers from intentionally using PFAS, which are on our restricted substance list.
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Supplier Guarantees: We require our suppliers to guarantee that the products and materials they supply to us do not contain added PFAS and that they conduct their own quality control testing for PFAS and fluorine.
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Regular Testing: We regularly test our products for the most commonly analyzed PFAS.
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Organic Fluorine Testing: We conduct routine organic fluorine testing on samples of finished products. Our core fabrics are also tested on an annual basis.
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Transparency: We share sample results from our routine spot testing for finished products here on our blog.
What are PFAS?
PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) is a term commonly used to refer to a large number of synthetic chemicals that contain carbon and fluorine bonds. PFAS are used in a wide array of commercial and industrial products and have historically been used in the textile and apparel industry as a stain or water repellent. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are over twelve thousand different PFAS, and research is ongoing to identify, test, and understand their potential human and environmental health impacts.
While it is not feasible to test for all 12,000 PFAS directly, we do know that all PFAS contain organic fluorine. Organic fluorine is typically synthetic and is a known marker of PFAS. It is important to differentiate organic fluorine from inorganic fluoride, which is naturally found in many minerals and other materials (including toothpaste and drinking water) and does not indicate the presence of PFAS. Testing for organic fluorine is the most efficient way to screen products for the potential presence of any of the thousands of different PFAS.
We Do Not Add PFAS
At Period Swimwear USA, we do not intentionally use PFAS in the manufacturing of our products. However, PFAS are now so widely dispersed in the environment that even the water we drink has low levels of contamination that, unfortunately, cannot be avoided. These fluorinated compounds are also unavoidably present in supply chain processes, such as in the cleaning solutions and water used on manufacturing equipment.
We control the safety and quality of the materials we use. For example, we ensure that all of our third-party textile suppliers do not intentionally use PFAS in the fabrics they supply to us. We prohibit all of our materials suppliers from using PFAS in the manufacture of our products and require them to guarantee that the products and materials they supply to us do not contain added PFAS. We also require our suppliers to conduct their own quality control testing for PFAS and fluorine. Any fabrics that do not meet our standards are not used and do not make their way into your hands or onto your bodies.
We also control the frequency, accuracy, and transparency of our PFAS testing. In addition to organic fluorine testing, we regularly test our products for the most common PFAS. Read more about our testing—and how it has evolved over the years—below.
PFAS & Organic Fluorine Testing
PFAS Testing
Before January 2020, PFAS was not generally associated with our product category, and as a result, we had never tested our products for PFAS or made any public claims related to PFAS. Our leakproof technology was manufactured in Italy and subject to relevant legislation regulating PFAS substance restrictions in the European Union, which have been quite progressive compared to those in the US and Canada.
However, in early 2020, as our industry became more aware of PFAS, we pursued extra third-party testing for peace of mind. This testing, an industry standard, is capable of identifying 20-30 main PFAS (like PFOA), which our products were cleared for. You can read a recent “non-detect” (meaning the particular PFAS were not detected) PFAS test report at the bottom of this page.
Today, Period Swimwear USA partners with an industry-leading lab and experts to guide our PFAS testing, including testing for a wider array of PFAS.
Organic Fluorine Testing
In January 2020, we also began testing the fabrics used in our products for fluorine (in addition to the direct PFAS testing described above), after learning that all PFAS contain organic fluorine. Since then, we have made testing for fluorine part of our testing process and will continue to do so going forward. You can check out what a non-detect fluorine report looks like at the bottom of this post in a sample 2022 report for our various products.
We mentioned earlier the important difference between organic fluorine and inorganic fluoride. Several of our products are made with materials that can be expected to naturally contain inorganic fluoride (which is not found in PFAS). We learned that using a material we know is safe—seaweed!—could potentially skew total fluorine test results (i.e., testing for all fluorine, regardless of whether it is organic or inorganic) without actually indicating that our products contain PFAS. When reading about fluorine testing as connected to PFAS, it’s important to ensure the testing is for organic fluorine, rather than total fluorine or inorganic fluoride.
Today, Period Swimwear USA partners with an industry-leading lab and experts to guide our testing for organic fluorine.
What’s Next
Having launched in 2013, we pride ourselves on being pioneers within the period swimwear industry, and as such, we are leading by example—by calling for more transparency and stricter regulations in this growing category. Our work is ongoing, but we want to include you in our journey to address the PFAS issue in meaningful and informative ways.
Thank you for trusting us to make your swimwear. If you have any other questions about product safety, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at support@periodswimwearusa.com.