Table 1
Health outcomes surrounding sanitary products

Reference	Topic	Study design	Country/ ethnicity	Study sample	Exposure assess­ment	Results	Toxins in the sanitary pads
Farage & Maibach (2007) [22]	Cutaneous effects of sanitary pads	CC	Caucasian, Asian	29	Interview*	No statistically conclusive differences in cutaneous resistance were found among the two group of self-judged normal skin and sensitive skin participants.	–‡
Louis et al. (2012) [26]	Organic solvents and endometriosis	F	United States	495	Registry	Unlike other persistent organochlorine pollutants, γ-HCH was positively associated with endometriosis in a statistically significant level.	Lindane [17]
Porpora et al. (2006) [27]	Organic solvents and endometriosis	CC	Italy	80	Registry	Women who suffered from endometriosis had higher levels of PCBs, in both dioxin-like and non-dioxin-like types.	PCBs [19]
Upson et al. (2013) [28]	Organic solvents and endometriosis	CC	United States	786	Registry	Endometriosis had a positive relationship with serum concentrations of β-HCH and mirex.	Lindane [17]
De Felip et al. (2004) [29]	Organic solvents and endometriosis	CC	Italy, Belgium	40	Interview	Italian women had a significantly lower prevalence rate than Belgian women, who are known to have the highest endometriosis severity and incidence.	cPCBs, PCBs [19]
Tsukino et al. (2005) [30]	Organic solvents and endometriosis	CC	Japan	139	Registry	Endometriosis had a weak overall correlation for TEQ values, with a significantly higher TEQ of PCDDs.	PCDDs, PCDFs [18]
							cPCBs, PCBs [19]
Vaktskjold et al. (2014) [33]	Organic solvents and premature infants	F	Russia	26415	Interview*	The risk of low birth weight increased among newborns in the organic solvent exposed group, mainly comprising painters.	PAH, phthalates, acetone, xylene [21]
Ahmed & Jaakkola (2007) [34]	Organic solvents and premature infants	CC	Finland	1670	Interview*	The risk of low birth rate was associated with any maternal exposure to solvents 3 months prior to or during pregnancy.	PAH, phthalates, acetone, xylene [21]
Correa et al. (1996) [35]	Organic solvents and spontaneous abortion	CC	United States	1150	Interview*	Among female manufacturers, spontaneous abortion rates were increased following the potential exposure of ethylene glycol ether.	Ethylene glycol ether [20]
Heidam (1984) [36]	Organic solvents and spontaneous abortion	F	Danish county of Fune	5205	Interview*	Only the odds ratio of jobs exposed to organic solvents, which were painters and factory workers, were the ratio of a significantly increased level of spontaneous abortion.	PAH, phthalates, acetone, xylene [21]
Vaktskjold et al. (2011) [37]	Organic solvents and congenital malformation	F	Russia	11273	Registry†	Respectively, the adjusted odds ratios for malformations of the circulatory and reproductive system at birth were 2.03 and 2.24.	PAH, phthalates, acetone, xylene [21]
		(Co­hort study)
Caserta et al. (2013) [39]	Organic solvents and infertility	CC	Italy	61	Interview*	Infertile women had a higher percentage of patients with detectable levels of BPA concentration and mean expression of receptors such as estrogen receptor α.	BPA [35]
Oddone et al. (2013) [47]	Organic solvents and multiple sclerosis	CC	Italy	1134	Interview*	There was a more frequent occurrence of multiple sclerosis in the organic-solvent exposed occupations.	PAH, phthalates, acetone, xylene [21]
Eskenazi et al. (1988) [48]	Organic solvents and cardiovascular diseases	CC	United States	270	Registry†	Women from the exposed group had more cardiovascular defects and delivery by cesarean section.	PAH, phthalates, acetone, xylene [21]
Tikkanen & Heinonen (1991) [49]	Organic solvents and cardiovascular pregnancy outcomes	CC	Finland	1628	Interview*	Maternal exposure of the defect group (12.1%) was slightly more prevalent than the control group, but without statistic conclusiveness.	PAH, phthalates, acetone, xylene [21]
Eskenazi et al. (1988) [50]	Organic solvents and neurodevelopmental pregnancy outcomes	CC	United States	82	Interview*	No differences in neurobehavioral development or growth were caused by the relatively low levels of organic solvent utero exposure in the exposed group.	PAH, phthalates, acetone, xylene [21]

CC, case-control study; F, follow-up study; HCH, hexachlorocyclohexane; cPCB, coplanar polychlorinated biphenyl; PCB, polychlorobiphenyl; PCDD, polychlorinated dibenzodioxin; PCDF, polychlorinated dibenzofuran; TEQ, toxic equivalency; PAH, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon; BPA, bisphenol A.
^*Self-reported exposure, e.g., questionnaire. ^†Job title or job task. ^‡‘–’ refers to the irrelevance of the article to the toxins or volatile organic compounds.