What do periods have to do with health and climate justice?

Menstruation is a human rights, public health and climate justice issue!

From period poverty, to the environmental impacts of disposable period products through to the health implications of harmful chemicals in period products. The lives of women, girls and people with periods are impacted globally as well as here in the UK.

There are so many facets to menstruation - health, period taboo and shame, period poverty, waste and pollution and period education, to name a few. It’s hard to address one aspect without addressing the others.

Join us at Amnesty International’s offices for this in person #EnvironmenstrualWeek Wen Forum. We’ll enjoy a lively discussion with our guest speakers, stalls and drinks and nibbles and a chance to meet like minded people.

We will be exploring how periods and climate change are connected. We will look at the health and waste impacts, equity and dignity, period poverty, education and regulation, and how we can challenge stubborn stigma and taboos. Plus we will  be discussing the urgent need for a Menstrual Act, which encompasses all aspects of menstruation - to safeguard women, girls and people with periods, and the environment. We cannot have health and climate justice without period equity!

Our guest speakers include:

1. Baroness Natalie Bennett, Green Party peer

2. Karen Joash - Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Scientific Advisor to Global Black Maternal Health, and Tommy's Charity

3. Dr Maria Tomlinson, Researcher in Health Communication and Social Inequalities

4. Hon. Tània Verge, MP in the Parliament of Catalonia and former Minister of Equality and Feminisms of the Government of Catalonia (2021-2024)

5. Chair: Helen Lynn, Wen Health Advisor and Environmenstrual Campaign Manager

6. More speakers to be confirmed

What to expect

Networking Reception & Stalls

The evening will start with a networking reception with drinks and a nibbles.  You can enjoy looking around the stalls from grassroots and national women’s and environmental organisations.

Speaker Panel

This will be followed by a speaker panel. 

About our speaker panel:

Baroness Natalie Bennett has been a Green Party member of the House of Lords since 2019. Leader of the Green Party from 2012-2016, she’s focused on getting human life within planetary boundaries, with a particular focus on “novel entities”, meaning pesticides, plastics and pharmaceuticals. A feminist since age five, she worked as a volunteer with the National Commission of Women’s Affairs in Thailand back in the 1990s, when she also worked on women’s issues for the World Health Organisation. Her book Change Everything: How We Can Rethink, Repair and Rebuild Society came out in March. A must read. Welcome Baroness Bennett.

Ms Karen Joash, a Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital site, holds multiple roles shaping maternal and reproductive health globally. As the Scientific Advisor to Global Maternal Health and Tommy’s Charity, she spearheads initiatives to improve awareness of environmental effects on health, particularly during pregnancy and infancy. Additionally, she serves as the Head of Postgraduate Training for Obstetrics and Gynaecology & Community Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in London; overseeing and impressive 26 hospitals. She wrote the foreword for the landmark Black Child Clean Air Report which highlighted the extent of outdoor and indoor air pollution which affects us all regardless of background or race. She serves on various boards at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Royal College of Psychiatrists. Welcome Karen

Dr. Maria Tomlinson is a lecturer in public communication and gender at the University of Sheffield. Her research explores the impact of health communication on social inequities. She is the author of two monographs: The Menstrual Movement in the Media: Reducing Stigma and Tackling Social Inequalities (2024) and From Menstruation to the Menopause: The Female Fertility Cycle in Contemporary Women's Writing in French (2021). She has won awards from The University of Sheffield and the British Standards Institute for her knowledge exchange and impact work.

Hon. Tània Verge is an MP in the Parliament of Catalonia and former Minister of Equality and Feminisms (May 2021 – August 2024) of the Government of Catalonia, which in March 2024 launched a global first that institutes the right to menstrual equity in order to further gender justice, social justice and climate justice: the free distribution of reusable menstrual products through local pharmacies to all girls, women and other menstruating people aged 10-60. She is also Full Professor of Politics and Gender at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), where she led the Equality Unit between 2014 and 2021. Her research focuses on how political institutions are patterned through gender and on resistance to the adoption and implementation of equality policies. She has advised national institutions and international organisations on gender sensitising initiatives and feminist redesign, such as the Council of Europe, EIGE, the Parliament of Catalonia and the Catalan Ombudsperson.

#EnvironmenstrualWeek #WenForum #MenstrualActNow #Menstruation #Periods