Zee Media Bureau/Udita Madan
Stories regarding the disadvantages of sanitary napkins in the market today, have been doing the rounds via television, SMS, WhatsApp and social networking websites alike. Reports that tell us how those sanitary napkins are harmful for health and personal hygiene and also how they can cause cervical cancer.
Now, scientists at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Kharagpur, have come out with sterilized sanitary napkins made from jute-based cellulose that could not only improve personal hygiene but also bring down the number of cervical cancer cases and most importantly, help revive the declining and stagnant jute industry.
Trials for the product that have been held over the last five months have provided “extremely encouraging” results.
According to a leading daily, B. Adhikary, a key face of the project and a professor at the Material Science Centre at IIT-Kharagpur, said, “The napkins were made to pass cyto-toxicity tests to see if there was any bacterial contamination. We found none. The napkins were sterilized with UV rays in a chamber, before they were packed. We also consulted the state drug control board before trying the products” .
The National Jute Board (NJB) has been striving to recreate the use of jute — ranging from home décor to geo-textiles that could be utilized to construct roads.
The jute industry consists of 60 mills - nearly three lakh and about four million jute cultivators. However, due to complete paucity of demand, the industry is gasping for breath.
