Sunday Times, South Africa - Sunday, May 16, 1999
In a New York Times article, a British condom quality consultant said: "The industry is a jungle. Some makers have excellent laboratories, and others stagger along with broken-down machinery. Latex goes in one end, something comes out the other - the buyer doesn't know the difference."
The article quotes experts as saying South Africa became a dumping ground for substandard products. Its procurement officers used an ineffective test regimen - inspectors would visit a factory once a year, test samples chosen by the factory and give it the South African Bureau of Standards seal of approval.
According to the SA Health Department's former condom logistics consultant, "tenders didn't have specifications related to packaging, storage and shelf life. Price is the only thing that seems to matter."
There is only one condom manufacturer in South Africa and one "partial" manufacturer. Each produced 30 million condoms for the government this year, which amounts to 20 percent of the state's total tender of 150 million. These are packaged in silver foil and do not carry a brand name.
The only full manufacturer in South Africa, Latex Surgical Products, ships raw latex in drums from a variety of sources, including Malaysia and Thailand.
General manager Desire Pul said it was both the level of investment and expertise needed for condom manufacturing that kept other local companies out of the industry. But she added: "It would not be difficult to increase our capacity - it would just require more financial resources."
Chris Bell, a director of Ansell UK, which produces Rough Rider and Lifestyle condoms, said proper storage and handling of condoms was integral to quality: "It is generally recommended that condoms be stored at less than 25 C. The packaging should be impermeable to both sunlight and gas. If air, which includes ozone, enters the package, it would affect the condom very quickly - ozone is like rust to a condom. Latex is a natural product, as is milk - it will go bad if you don't treat it or store it properly."
However, the basic quality of a condom affects how it reacts to storage conditions. Inferior manufacturing can accelerate the ageing process.
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