Farhana Sultana, an assistant scientist at icddr,b, has received the grand award for her suggested innovation, which involves building a machine to create jute cellulose-based disposable sanitary pads for long-term menstrual health. For women and girls in Bangladesh, it offers an alternate solution for menstrual health and hygiene. Ms Sultana designed and piloted the jute cellulose-based disposable pad in partnership with Dr Mubarak Ahmed Khan, scientific advisor at Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, according to an icddr,b announcement on its official Facebook page.

Jute-Based Sanitary Pad made in Bangladesh

Farhana Sultana has been the primary researcher for a number of menstruation management programs. The Islamic Development Bank gave her a $100,000 (Tk 8.4 million) grant to create jute napkins, minimizing the usage of plastics. For a long time, Farhana Sultana and her colleagues have been focusing on menstruation management. The researches have led them to finally propose the idea of jute cellulose-based sanitary pads for women and girls.

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Tishan Mahfuz, a team intern researcher, said they put biometric devices in four schools in Dhaka and Manikganj to find out why female students were missing classes. According to Tishan, the percentage of absences decreased when plans were made to provide sanitary napkins in the school.

Who is Farhana Sultana?

Bangladeshi scientist Farhana Sultana is currently involved with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene research group at International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Her mission is to reduce the burden of communicable illnesses in Bangladesh by designing, testing, and implementing low-cost and long-term interventions in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors among low-income and high-risk individuals.

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The studies she has done include 

1) Systematic review of literature on the sustained adoption of clean water and sanitation technologies; 

2) Piloting hygiene interventions among elementary school children in Bangladesh; 

3) Understanding the rental market system in low-Income urban Dhaka; and 

4) Waterpoint sustainability exploration study. 

Her major work includes literature review; protocol writing; developing research methods, study instruments, and intervention packages; oversee data collection; data analysis using SPSS, STATA, and Atlas-ti; writing reports, manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals, and conference papers.

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Farhana Sultana Received Global Award

The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) has also granted Farhana a $5000 honorarium for her participation in the 4th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition on "A Healthier Global Community Addressing the Twin Challenges of Pandemic Preparedness and Impact of Climate Change."

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Other Eco-Friendly Sanitary Napkins

 It is crucial to buy sanitary goods that make one feel secure and comfortable during their period, but as everyone strives to be more environmentally conscious, it is also worth thinking about how ecologically friendly the tampons and sanitary pads are. There are day and night pads that are made of 100 percent organic bamboo and a biodegradable plant-based wrapper that is comfortable and secure to use.

Some other biodegradable pads are made with a 100 percent organic cotton top sheet that is devoid of scents, colors, and chlorine bleaching, making them not only healthier for the user but also less harmful to the environment. 100% compostable and biodegradable sanitary pads manufactured from banana fiber are yet another eco-friendly sanitary pads that are being made currently to reduce environmental waste caused by plastics.

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Benefits of  Eco-Friendly Sanitary Pads

In her lifetime, a woman uses roughly 23 kg of plastic for period management. Because the plastic used in sanitary pads is non-biodegradable, it could take 500 to 800 years for one to degrade, posing health and environmental risks. Because 36% of menstruation women use sanitary napkins, their environmental impact is significant. The majority of these pads are made up of over 90% plastic, and each pad is the size of four plastic bags.

Rural women use reusable fabric as sanitary pads, which is environmentally good but not very hygienic. Cloth napkins must be cleaned and dried properly in the sun, which functions as a natural sterilizer. Reusable tampons made from bamboo, wool, hemp, cotton, etc are feasible and more sustainable alternatives to plastic sanitary pads produced commercially and massively. They are put into the vaginal canal in the same way that disposable tampons are.

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Sanitary napkins produced from bamboo pulp, wood pulp, or bamboo charcoal are highly absorbent and healthy. These products are also good for the environment as they are easily compostable.