Responding to women's complaints about tampon leaks, Proctor & Gamble created the super-absorbent Rely tampons in 1978. They were made from a new material that was not only the most absorbent on the market, but it "blossomed" into a cup shape when inserted.

Sounds great and all, but in the early 1980s this new material resulted in hundreds of cases of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), a disease caused by bacterial toxin, with some cases leading to death. The material was soon found to be present in many of the new ultra-absorbent brands of tampons and a public TSS campaign began.

After a voluntary recall of many tampon brands and a multi-million dollar class-action lawsuit against two of the companies responsible for producing the tampons, new FDA regulations were created banning the offending materials in tampons and requiring information about TSS to be included in tampon boxes.

Though TSS has not disappeared completely, yearly cases of TSS have dropped dramatically from 814 reported cases in 1980 to only 5 reported cases in 1997. Some suggestions to avoid TSS today: use unscented, non-artificial fiber tampons (such as cotton) and change your tampon regularly.

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