Kashrut of utensils used to clean menstrual cup and cloth pads

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July 4, 2014

Question

I have two kashrut questions regarding the use of a menstrual cup and cloth pads.

1. Would boiling a silicone menstrual cup to sanitize it affect the kashrut status of the pot used to boil it?

2. If one uses a large container to soak⁄store used menstrual pads, would this affect the kashrut status of the container if one wanted to later use it for food (after lots of sanitization, of course)?

Answer

1. So long as the cup at no point sits with blood in it for a full 24 hours (you should rinse it out each time you remove it), and is cleaned thoroughly before heating the cooking water, there is no kashrut issue with using a cooking pot for this purpose.

2. Since long-term soaking can have a halachic status akin to cooking, such a container should not be used for food.