Tampon

An online petition in Kosovo calling for the lowering or removal of VAT on menstrual products such as menstrual pads, tampons, cups and underwear, has received over 5,600 signatures in just three days.

They say the 18 percent value added tax, VAT, levied on menstrual pads, tampons, cups or underwear is an extra, discriminatory burden on financially-vulnerable women - leading to a phenomenon known as 'period poverty'. But their calls have so far fallen on deaf ears.

“Has anyone considered the trauma girls will experience when boys run up & down hallways, waving tampons & pantomiming insertion?”

Ljubljana, 4 September – Most single-use plastic products bar a few exceptions are banned as of today under a recently adopted government regulation. The new rules also set down the labelling of certain single-use plastic items and their packaging to inform consumers about ways to recycle them.

Ljubljana – The government has banned the sale of single-use plastic products bar a few exceptions. The relevant regulation, endorsed at Wednesday’s correspondence session, also prescribes the labelling of certain single-use plastic items and their packaging to raise awareness about recycling.

Ljubljana – The legislative changes lowering VAT on women’s sanitary products from 22% to 9.5% entered into force on Monday. The initiative for the changes had come from Bojana Muršič, an MP for the opposition Social Democrats (SD).

"Our fellow citizens are not always able to buy the right supplies or have the basic conditions to maintain hygiene, which is truly devastating for us as a society."

Results 'caused a stir'

Illustration. Photo: Pixabay/kerplode.

Scotland on Nov. 24 made sanitary products free to all women, becoming the first nation in the world to take such a step against "period poverty."

The measure makes tampons and sanitary pads available at designated public places such as community centres, youth clubs and pharmacies, at an estimated annual cost to taxpayers of 24 million pounds ($32 million U.S.).

Not many women read the fine print when it comes to tampon packaging so a mother whose teen died from sepsis after using tampons is on a campaign to teach tampon users to read the danger signs of Toxic Shock Syndrome. Young Jemma-Louise Roberts, aged 13, felt unwell while on family holiday. She was wrongly diagnosed with Norovirus, a winter vomiting bug.

VAT hikes took effect, on beef, for instance, even before the ink was dry on a law approving the framework package with European creditors, the now infamous “Greekment”.