The City Council on Wednesday will consider a proposal by councilors Matt O'Malley (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain) and Lydia Edwards (North End, Charlestown, East Boston) to have public schools, libraries, community centers and other municipal buildings stock free menstrual products in women's rooms.
In a proposal for a hearing on the idea of joining Brookline in offering the products through dispensing machines, they write that more than 16% of Bostonians are below the poverty level and that:
A lack of access to menstrual products can contribute to a variety of health, social, and professional challenges.
Although a group called Catie's Closet now provides the products to 23 Boston schools, there are roughly 50 others that could benefit from having the products easily available.
The council's regular meeting begins at noon in its fifth-floor chambers in City Hall. The councilors will like send the proposal to a council committee for a public hearing before taking a vote.
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Comments
It's about time!
By anon
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 1:30pm
It's about time!
Thank You
By anon
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 7:17pm
This makes sense & is an issue often ignored! Thank you Councilors O’Malley & Edwards...
I don't even see why this is a question.
By Bob Leponge
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 2:00pm
If we're going to provide, without charge, toilet paper, soap, hand sanitizer, and paper towels, why are we not, as a matter of course, providing tampons etc. the same way?
Because not everyone has
By anon
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 2:33pm
Because not everyone has watched the Netflix documentary.
Yeah
By BostonDog
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 2:54pm
A friend who's a business owner noted the importance of free availability of these products for more then just ethical reasons. They commented how if not offered, people are going to need to leave their assigned duties to go and buy them. So strictly from a productivity standpoint, it's the right thing to do.
Not paper towels
By ScottB
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 4:00pm
You won't see paper towels available in city buildings.
Impressive number of thumbs ups Bob Leponge
By Kapil
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 5:24pm
42 in less than 3 and a half hours. These are adamg numbers. I wish I had thought of this post.
Well put
By Waquiot
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 11:45am
I scoffed at this idea at first, but your argument makes way too much sense. I say now, go for it!
THANK YOU, COUNCILORS
By bibliotequetres...
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 2:34pm
I worked 18 years in public archives and libraries in eastern MA. I don't know how many tampons I gave to patrons, and it was no where near the number that reference librarians and front desk workers gave.
At one historic site, where we were nowhere near a store, we employees kept a kitty going next to the break room coffee pot to keep a basket of tampons & pads stocked in the bathroom.
We did that because our employer provided free coffee but not period products.
Anyway, the big beneficiaries will be teens. Huge help for kids whose families are struggling for basics.
This is great!
By SalSal
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 4:58pm
Puberty is difficult enough.
Makes sense
By StillFromDorchester
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 6:13pm
I'm almost sure every place I've ever worked has had them in the ladies rooms.
Not everywhere
By Cranky
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 10:08am
My current place of work has nothing available in the bathrooms and the place I used to work had a vending machine (and not one of those free vending machines that you see sometimes).
I have friends whose 9yr. old
By anon
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 7:16pm
I have friends whose 9yr. old daughters are getting their periods... this was unheard of in my generation. Let's help these girls out!
Well bot for nothing but
By Friartuck
Tue, 06/04/2019 - 9:19pm
Big Brother does targeted pickups in my neighborhood that are seemingly undisturbed...why can't the city fund them?
I think
By Waquiot
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 11:44am
You posted this for the wrong article.
Still, you've got me thinking of things that Big Brother (the non-profit organization, not another phrase for the government) might do.
They’re expensive
By lud10
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 7:19am
This is wonderful but- once word gets out, doesn’t it get expensive? I would stop buying them if I could go to the local and pilfer a supply. Hmmm.
Oh, are you aware of a black market in tampons?
By adamg
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 7:36am
I have to admit: I've never heard of somebody being arrested for illegal possession of them.
Bulk
By cybah
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 7:50am
Buying in Bulk
And if the feminine hygiene products are like the toilet paper and paper towels in most bathrooms.. you won't be getting "Tampax" or "Always" branded products, but generic brands of lower quality.
Oh please
By anon
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 9:26am
Nonsense argument. That's like saying, "Won't this encourage menstruation?"
if we freeloading wimmins
By anon
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 6:59pm
were given the opportunity, we would menstruate every week, tell you what.
it's such a fun time, I don't do it more only because of the cost.
Wet blanket
By Lunchbox
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 11:11am
Sure it'd be nice to give everyone free feminine products but - what's the cost? Nothing's free. Every dollar spent on this is a dollar not spent on police, or the homeless, or addiction recovery, or [whatever your favorite issue is].
And what keeps people from abusing the system, and using this as their free supply of products? Or just pocketing a few and taking them home?
What keeps people from stealing menstrual products?
By Cranky
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 11:33am
I dunno. Probably the same thing that keeps them from stealing the paper towels and toilet roll.
You can't steal a toilet
By anon
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 1:18pm
You can't steal a toilet paper roll from a public bathroom because the dispenser is locked. You could unroll it and take a massive fluffy bunch, but then what would you do with it?
Tampons, on the other hand, would be easy to carry and use if you took a whole bunch of them.
This initiative will ensure that there's an empty tampon dispenser in every rest room. Unless they're of really poor quality, and even then they might get stolen.
OK then
By lbb
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 11:39am
Let's take all the toilet paper out of the men's restrooms. I bet we'd save a lot of money that way. You can just carry your own, right Lunchbox? I mean, what keeps people from abusing the system?
the homeless
By anon
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 2:35pm
today I learned there are no such thing as homeless women
Are you kidding me...?
By anon
Thu, 06/06/2019 - 9:52am
These are MENSTRUAL products. No one is stealing these for fun. If you have a bleeding orifice like this, then you wouldn't think about this way. Menstrual supplies are needed by ALL WITH UTERSUSES - this especially includes homeless women who will also benefit from this...thus putting money towards what you say this is taking money away from.
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