Team:MITADTBIO Pune/Survey
A few months ago, with the launch of the iGEM collaboration portal, the MITADTBio_Pune team released a Survey. Till that point, we had been working off published papers, studies and old newspaper articles, and a few brief talks with experts. The portal gave us an opportunity to reach out across the globe and get data from teams that we otherwise might not have been in touch with.
So, we'd like to thank you, the iGEM teams that took time out of what must have been undoubtedly busy schedules to fill out our survey. The information you provided, about how far-spread and critical the issue of Menstrual Waste is and about ways your governments deal with this was greatly appreciated. To commemorate your support of our endeavor, we wanted to do something special. Please find attached, your very own Badge of Honor. This is proof that your team collaborated with us, by filling our survey and providing us with some data. You can put it up on your Wiki, with a link to ours, to show that we have worked together. Needless to say, we will be doing the same!
Our survey also contained some questions that had “right” and “wrong” answers. Analyzing the results was key to our understanding of how unware or misinformed the populace; both general and scientific is about this issue. We thought long and hard about what we could do to rectify this, and spread awareness about Plastic Menstrual Waste.
Below, you'll find the results of our survey in easy to read and understand pie charts. By looking at these we believe you too can learn about this situation worldwide. But that isn't enough. Included are the answers we expected to see, based on our preliminary research, and links to other websites where you can read and learn about Plastic Menstrual Waste and in turn, encourage others to do the same. We hope that by nudging young scientists in the direction of awareness, Team MITADTBio_Pune will play a small role in enlightening the youth, eradicating misinformation and bring about a revolution that will burn down the Plastic Menstrual Waste of the world. Wait..no, a revolution that will safely decompose and degrade the plastic of the world, leading to being better and brighter(without all the smoke you see) future.
Menstrual Pads are indeed agents of transmitted diseases. Since blood is such a rich source of nutrition, pathogens can proliferate very easily. Sanitary workers can and have fallen ill due to direct contact with such pads.
This actually depends on the type of menstrual pads in question. With individuals becoming more environment sensitive, there has been a rise in the availability of biodegradable menstrual pads. These are made from natural biodegradable materials such as organic cotton and plant cellulose like banana fibres.
A pad actually takes 500-800 years to decompose completely. This is because a major component in pads is Polyethylene (PE), which is a plastic. The most effective way of breaking down plastic is photodegradation, occuring as a result of the UV light, which takes a long time. So while not "basically forever", its definitely not as fast as "a few years".
As mentioned above, menstrual pads do pose health risks to collection and sanitary workers who are not equipped with adequate safety gear, and occasionally even then.
-Ideally, menstrual pads should be discarded separately all together.. Putting potentially bio-hazardous waste in either dry or wet waste can be dangerous to the garbage collectors, and can only be termed as not upholding your civic duty.