Brookline First Town In US To Require Tampons In Public Bathrooms

BROOKLINE, MA — Brookline will become the first municipality in the country to require tampons and other menstrual hygiene products in its public bathrooms. Voters approved the plan during Thursday during Town Meeting, the annual gathering of elected representatives who vote on the budget and decide other town-related matters. Brookline resident Rebecca Stone and three high schools students presented the plan.

Proponents said tampons and pads are just as important to sanitation as toilet paper in public bathrooms.

"Toilet paper is what we provide in restrooms because public hygiene laws, like many of our laws, primarily reflect the male experience," Stone said Thursday. "Tonight we can change that."

Town Meeting voted unanimously for the proposal, but the town has until July 1, 2021 to adopt it. This would allow the town time to acquire and install dispensary machines in the bathrooms. It would also spread the initial cost of the machines, estimated at about $40,000, across several budget cycles.

The cost to the town? About $40,000 the first year and then about $7,300 to maintain.

Imagine if you had to always keep a roll of toilet paper on you in the event you had to go to the bathroom unexpectedly away from home. Just like it's not sanitary to use the bathroom without TP, tampons and pads are not a luxury item, but critical to women's health several Brookline High School students argued Thursday night.

"This is what equity is all about," said Carter Mucha, of Brookline High School.

It was a convincing argument.

By summer of 2021 the town will install dispensary machines in both men's, women's and family public restrooms at Town Hall, public libraries, town comfort stations and restrooms at the health department and parks and recreation so that anyone who was born female can have access to the menstrual products, even if they use a different restroom.

There was some concern about cost, or that people might take more than one item at a time.

But the students from Brookline High School who were behind the idea said argued that having the products in a dispenser would discourage people from taking too much.

"The whole point of the article is to provide these products to those who need it most. Is it that big of a deal if someone in need takes more than one?" said Brookline High School student Eva Stanley.

Although students from Brookline High School were the ones who sparked the idea, the new bylaw does not apply to public school restrooms. The School Committee would need to approve something similar.

Scotland became the first country to mandate free menstrual hygiene products in schools. California has mandated the same for some schools. New York offers feminine hygiene products in prisons and schools. Illinois provides them to schools.

There are bills in the State Senate and House that would make tampons and sanitary pads available in public schools from grades 6 to 12, homeless shelters, and prisons across the Commonwealth.

Food stamps do not cover tampons or pads, the program puts them in the same category as cigarettes and alcohol, and yet half of the population gets a period, said Stone. In 36 states menstrual products are taxed as a luxury item, though not in Massachusetts.

Related:

Brookline Makes History In The Bathroom, Night 2 of Town Meeting

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).