Mid Sweden University

There is a growing need for increased knowledge regarding sustainable and health-conscious menstrual products, particularly as environmental concerns intersect with public health, equality, and education. Our recent research presents the development and assessment of an internal menstrual product made from wood-based, biodegradable, fossil and plastic-free materials. Designed for safe use for at least 12 hours, the product addresses the practical needs of modern users across diverse cultural and socioeconomic contexts. Laboratory testing, including toxicological assessments, absorption efficiency, and biodegradability analyses, confirms that the product meets high standards of safety and environmental performance. The design process emphasized comfort, hygiene, and suitability for extended daily use without increasing health risks, such as Toxic Shock Syndrome. Patents are pending both regarding the product design and regarding the production process conditions.

To complement and assist the product development, an interactive 3D educational tool was created to enhance menstrual and reproductive health literacy. This tool, tailored for young users and low-resource settings, has been evaluated in collaboration with schools, youth clinics, and international NGOs in high and low-income countries. The initiative responds to the persistent stigma surrounding menstruation and the limited access to accurate, inclusive, and culturally adapted educational resources.

A key research focus has been integrating sustainable material innovation with health education and exploring the potential for international standardization. The project also initiated steps toward the first global safety standard for menstrual products under ISO, promoting transparency, user safety, and global market readiness. Through stakeholder engagement, user studies, and pilot-scale manufacturing, this work demonstrates how eco-friendly menstrual products can support environmental goals while empowering users through education and accessibility.

By combining product innovation, education, and policy development, this research contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals such as: Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3), Quality Education (SDG 4), Gender Equality (SDG 5), and Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12). It offers a scalable, evidence-based framework for improving menstrual health globally.

The mechanical problem that occurs when a thin elastic layer (e.g., a part of a composite panel) is inserted between two tapered elastic parts and bolted together is studied. The problem considered is of relevance for situations when it is of value to get a rough estimate of the contact pressure in the elastic layer and, by extension, the contact friction. The intermediate elastic layer (i.e., panel) is assumed to behave like a Winkler foundation, and engineering beam theory is assumed to describe the behavior of the tapered outer parts. The coupling between the transverse stresses in the panel and the longitudinal stress due to an applied external tensile load in the plane of the panel is ignored. By using the influence functions for the tapered parts, one obtains an integral equation involving the compression of the panel as the only unknown function. The integral equation is solved numerically by standard procedures. An experiment was also performed in a way that differs slightly from what is covered by the more general theoretical model. This is due to practical reasons connected to the experiment. It was found that the theoretical model gave results in fair agreement with the experimental results.