2008 – Page 6 – David Bradley

Melamine Contaminated Food List

melamine-candy via LA Times Before you check out the following items, please click here first to grab the Sciencebase newsfeed. I’ll be updating the melamine news over the next few days, and the RSS newsfeed system allows you to keep up to date with the Sciencebase site without having to check back by adding our headlines to your Google account, My Yahoo, Bloglines or your active bookmarks in your browser.

As the melamine in milk products from China problem continues to grow apace, Sciencebase presents a succinct list of melamine contaminated food list culled from the most recent news results on the subject. This is by no means an exhaustive list nor is it a condemnation of any particular products, it’s here merely to raise awareness of what is happening with regard to the melamine in milk scandal.

Powdered baby milk.
HK finds melamine in Chinese-made cheesecake.
Cookies With Melamine Found in Netherlands.
Mr Brown coffee products.
Manufacturing giant Unilever recalls melamine tainted tea. CNN is also reporting that the Hong Kong authorities Sunday (October 5) announced that two recalled candy products made by British confectioner Cadbury had high levels of melamine.
Melamine Detected in Two More Ritz Snacks.
More Chinese-made sweets recalled in Japan.
White Rabbit brand Chinese candy contaminated: Asian health officials.
Lipton, Glico and Ritz the latest businesses to be affected by milk powder scandal.
Hong Kong finds traces of melamine in Cadbury products.
Recalled Melamine Milk Products include Asian versions of Bairong grape cream crackers, Dove chocolate, Dreyers cake mix, Dutch Lady candy, First Choice crackers, Kraft Oreo wafer sticks, M&Ms, Magnum ice cream, Mentos bottle yoghurt, Snickers funsize, Yili hi-cal milk, Youcan sesame snacks and others. Testing of some of those has already proven negative.
Melamine Found in More China-Made Products, including Heinz DHA+AA baby cereal.
305 Chinese dairy-based products temporarily banned in Korea.
US bloggers have gone so far as to uncover dozens of products recalled in China that were still on the shelves of their local supermarkets.
31 new milk powder brands found tainted.

Just for the record, this is not, as was suggested on a couple of blogs linking here, a definitive, complete list. I will update it as and when new information comes to light. Check out the previous posts for more information in the background to this news story and for further discussion on the issues surrounding the melamine in milk products scandal: Melamine Scandal Widens and (2008-09-29) Milky Melamine.

Double Tennis Racquet Racket

two-racquet-tennis I’m not sure what to make of this, but Don Mueller, of William Paterson University, New Jersey, who goes by the nickname Dr Bones sent me some video clips of what is, essentially, a new sport he invented – two-racquet tennis. Now, my first thought was: “what the flip?” But, apparently his service velocity is higher than that of most tennis professionals, although I don’t think that has anything to do with using a racquet in each hand.

Anyway, he has posted a selection of videos on Youtube to demonstrate his prowess at this new sport:

Tennis Serve (a), Tennis Serve (b), Groundstrokes (a), Groundstrokes (b), Drills-righthand (a), Drills-lefthand (b)

Mueller tells me that he combined his understanding of basic physics to devise the “Whip-Grip”, which gives him the higher velocity. He says there are other advantages of playing tennis with a racquet in each hand: “It’s really great at the net and no more tennis elbow pain from hitting backhands, the cause of most tennis injuries,” he explains, “Where most people say, Why?, I say, Why not?”

Mueller is a teaching adjunct at WPU and this semester he tells me he’s teaching mathematics. “I’ve taught chemistry, physics and math at WPU and that’s the way I like it,” he says, “With a PhD in chemical physics, I enjoy teaching all of these subjects. Not being tied down allows me to do other things, which in my case means performing science and health shows for the public along with my promotion of two-racquet tennis.”

The notion of reinventing a well-known and popular sport by the novel application of physics is not entirely new. Just think of the football (soccer) players on the fields of Rugby School in England, when William Webb Ellis during the early nineteenth century famously made the ball defy gravity and invented the eponymous team sport – rugby – from which American football was ultimately to evolve. Perhaps in 100 years’ time two-racquet tennis will have its own name, ambibat, perhaps and be just as common. One has to wonder how a McEnroe of the future might cope though, with two racquets to fling at the umpire!

Melamine Contaminated Milk

chinese-boy A brief summary and update to the Sciencebase original posts on Melamine in Milk and Melamine Scandal Widens.

Dairy farmers have been feeling the squeeze for years, particularly in parts of the world where technological advancement has been slow in coming and so their profit margins on their milk output have not been lifted by improved efficiency. In order to boost profits milk has been diluted. However, this brings with it the problem of falling quality – dilute with water and measurable concentrations of milk proteins, fats, and sugars fall. Dilution by up to 30% has not been uncommon, which is where melamine (as I’ve mentioned) comes in. Melamine is a small organic molecule with a high nitrogen content that can easily fool the quality control equipment into thinking that nitrogen (from protein) is present at normal levels and so the milk is passed as good.
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Unfortunately, it is possible that melamine accumulates in the body and causes toxicity problems – basically damaging the kidneys and forming stones (solid deposits within the kidneys or bladder). Infants fed regularly with milk containing melamine will be particularly susceptible to these effects. As we have seen tens of thousands have been affected and several have died in China. Why this problem is not more widespread, given the rather large number of infants potentially having been drinking contaminated formula-milk for months is unclear.

Hsieh Teh-sheng, director of the Taiwan Urological Association and chief of Cathay General Hospital’s Department of Urology told the Taipei Times, that while there is no direct toxicity information on melamine’s health effects on people, the level of melamine found in the milk products is “not particularly high”. He says that kidney stones or other effects blamed on the melamine “could just as easily be caused by other harmful chemicals,” which is a point I discussed in the original post.

However, cyanuric acid is often present in melamine samples and the two can react together to form crystals, which can form stones. The current scandal could, whatever the final outcome, provide researchers with useful data on the effects of chronic exposure to melamine and its toxicity to the kidneys and bladder.

Sources in China have now said that Sanlu, which is at the heart of the controversy, was aware that its products were contaminated with melamine as long ago as December 2007. Fonterra, the New Zealand dairy company and 43% stakeholder in Sanlu claims to have approached the Chinese authorities as soon as it heard about the problem but was held back from going public because of the imminent Beijing Olympic Games. One can imagine there were additional pressures that prevented Fonterra from pushing for a solution. But, it cannot blame Chinese regulations for it failing to warn consumers as soon as it knew about the contamination.

Products across the globe containing milk imported from China seem to have been affected and authorities from Australasia and Asia to Europe and the US are withdrawing formula milk, coffee and tea drinks, candies, soup, cheese powder, biscuits, ready-made desserts, and chocolate. however, there are calls from some commentators that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should be more forthright on its recommendations for consumers concerned with the melamine in milk scandal.

For those thinking of testing the products in their store cupboard, there’s a Craigslist item for sale here. It’s described as a “Rapid Melamine test kit—AgraQuant Melamine ELISA test kit”.

But, before you grab your credit card, think carefully whether you’d like to make ELISA (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay) your friend. It’s a tricky test and probably not one you could rattle off in an afternoon with at least some biomedical background. Also, there’d be no point in testing your Ikea furniture for melamine, the “Melamine” they use is a polymer resin (a plastic, in other words) made from the small organic molecule melamine and formaldehyde, and no there’s no need to worry about using melamine cooking utensils or eating off a melamine-coated kitchen table.

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Disastrous Rumours

rumours Gossip and rumours, they are the life force of cultural interaction. Just ask Guy Kawasaki, whose Truemors.com website took off last year, the hundreds of hacks who peddle the minutiae of celebrity lifestyles complete with the Photoshopped products of the paparazzi, or Perez Hilton. But, there is a serious side to rumours. In the midst of a natural disaster, terrorist atrocity, or war-torn location, the spread of rumours can mean the difference between life and death.

Informatics and e-business expert Judith Molka-Danielsen of Molde University College, Norway and public relations professional Thomas Beke of the University of Szeged, Hungary, explain how rumours affect how rational individuals assess risks, evaluate needs, and make decisions in disaster-affected environments. “Rumours play a confounding role in disaster management,” the researchers say.

In order to understand how rumours might propagate under extreme conditions and how a strategy to contain rumours, or enable “useful” rumours, to spread might be developed they have developed a definition of “rumour”. They point out that a rumour is essentially a message, but one with some degree of false content and a method of transporting the content. Two well-documented cases of technological and biological disaster events that led to loss of human welfare and economic losses and how the interplay of rumours in each cases underpinned the outcomes epitomise the definition: Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986 and the tsunami that devastated Aceh in 2004.

Previous studies have suggested that immediately following a major disaster, “an atmosphere of fear, distrust and a scarcity of reliable information,” develops, within which people are “eager to circulate emotionally negative news, even if that news is exaggerated.” It is becoming apparent that relief agencies could use the rumour mill to spread accurate information to help those likely to be affected by a disaster rather than allowing the passive spread of misinformation to take place.

One might wonder whether such a positive rumour mill if it had been in place in China might have staved off the melamine in milk disaster that has been unfolding across Asia since well before the Beijing Olympics, now that tens of thousands of infants have been affected.

The researchers point out that no formal research has been presented to give relief coordinators a comprehensive understanding of the role of rumours in disaster management. There seems to have been no progress in this regard between major disasters and the relief efforts associated with them; erroneous and incomplete information exists in many real-world scenarios almost by default.

It is the imperfect state of information and its communication that are the fundamental preconditions in the birth of rumours. But rumours are something more than just misinformation and being misinformed. Rumours can have a viciously reinforcing and cascading affect on an existing state of falseness or existing communication problems. Disaster management agencies must therefore understand how to identify and address the phenomenon of rumours.

The team has developed a Rumour Object Enactment Model (ROEM), which defines the connections between different rumours and how they can affect the playout of relief work and human behaviour during a disaster. They used the cases of “Foot and mouth disease” (2001) and the “London underground bombings” (2005) for their detailed analysis to provide the underpinnings of their model.

Responsible agencies, the researchers suggest, could make use of their model to be able to identify how particular rumours start during a disaster and how they can be corrected or exploited to benefit those involved in the disaster.

It is essential for leaders, assistant groups or responsible authorities to understand the possible positive or potentially chaotic uses of rumours and the difficulty in predicting or controlling the boundaries of their dispersive domain. Decision makers with this knowledge will be better equipped to analyse the disaster environments and better able to respond to events in the presence of uncertainties.

Judith Molka Danielsen, Thomas Beke (2008). Rumours interplay in disaster management International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 9 (4) DOI: 10.1504/IJRAM.2008.020413

Spectral Analysis

amplitude-spectroscopy This week in my SpectroscopyNOW column, I have four new posts covering, as usual, a wide range of solutions to scientific and technical problems. First up, is the discovery that compounds found in cannabis could lead to novel antibiotics that are less susceptible to resistance than conventional drugs. Then, we have a new type of spectroscopy that allows scientists to carry out broadband analysis of artificial atoms held at temperatures close to absolute zero. Next, is word from chemists that they have developed a new type of reaction flask that can carry out reactions in the solid state. Finally, this week, we hear of testing times for biomass, where modern spectral analysis could help in the processing of old, treated wood as a renewable fuel resource.

Doping the superbugs – Substances found in cannabis could be used to fight potentially lethal superbugs, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, without the mood-altering effects, according to researchers in Italy and the UK. Cannabis sativa (L. Cannabinaceae) extracts may also provide an alternative to synthetic antibacterial substances used in personal hygiene products, including hand wash and cosmetics.

Diamond amp – A new spectroscopic approach to measuring the energy levels of an atomic system has been developed by US researchers. Amplitude spectroscopy can be used to measure the energies of certain natural and artificial atoms and molecules over extremely broad bandwidth by scanning the amplitude of the applied radiation rather than its frequency. The new technique allows the characterization of multiple energy levels in the system, and so overcomes a key challenge to realization of powerful quantum computers. It is applicable to systems with strong coupling to external fields, including artificial atoms, spin systems, cold atoms and molecules, and molecular magnets.

Littlest test-tube – Chemists in Japan have synthesized a new porous material that acts as a microscopic solid-state reaction vessel. Chemical changes taking place in each pore can be tracked using X-ray crystallography the team explains.

Testing times for biomass – Spectroscopy can be used to determine the amount of ash and char present in various types of biomass derived from wood, according to researchers in Japan and the US. Their analytical approach could help in the development of renewable resources for fuels to replace fossil fuels.

Melamine Scandal Widens

chinese-baby Four infants in China have died and at least 53,000 are reportedly ill, many seriously so, having been fed milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. A three-year old girl in Hong Kong is also ill, but has now been released from hospital, she was the first reported case outside mainland China. Major formula milk producer Nestle says none of its products in China has been contaminated with melamine, although the Hong Kong government says it has found the contaminant in the company’s milk formula.

I guess it’s no surprise that this scandal has emerged after, rather than before or during, the Olympic Games, but that is not something that would be peculiar to China. Governments the world over try to manage bad news and China certainly does not have a monopoly on cover-ups. If melamine is the primary contaminant, then regardless of claims that other compounds may be present, long-term use (six months or so) would be enough for this toxic compound to accumulate in an infant and lead to toxic effects such as kidney stones. The LD50, or acute toxic dose is not entirely relevant if an infant is being fed contaminated milk day after day. Incidentally, LD50 is a measurement per kilogram of body mass, so it is not higher for people than it is for rats, although it may be different because of differences in our body’s biochemistry.

I used to use an analytical instrument when I worked part-time in quality control in a milk-processing plant during my early post-student days. The machine could give you an almost instantaneous printout of fat, protein and sugar levels in the milk passing through the dairy. Those in QC also had to look at the milk for colour and quality and smell and taste it to check for taints (from pipe disinfectants, bacterial action, or contaminants). Indeed, one of the qualifications for the job was to have a palate sensitive enough to detect phenolic (smoky) compounds down to a few parts. It would usually have been quickly apparent if there was a problem with any incoming milk supply and I cannot see how others in the supply chain in China were not duplicitous in this conspiracy.

There could, of course, be other contaminants, I alluded to that in the original melamine in milk post. If someone is unscrupulous enough to add melamine to baby milk to falsify protein levels, then there’s no reason to think that they would use expensive chemically pure material. This would go some way to answering one of the questions asked by a commenter on the original post. Apparently, the Chinese government reported findings 2565 ppm or 0.25% of melamine in Sanlu’s milk powder. The cost of melamine is relatively high, so what would be the economic justification for such an irresponsible act if it were only increasing the apparent protein level by 1.2%?

The melamine may have been obtained from low-quality sources that are themselves contaminated with other toxic compounds, or it may be high-quality melamine, but stolen to order at some point in the supply chain? It has been suggested that other contaminants may be urea and aminopterin, but I have not seen any official note on that anywhere.

Melamine decomposes on heating, so one commenter on the original post was curious as to how does melamine survive the pasteurization and evaporation processes without decomposition used to make milk powder from raw milk.

Apparently, melamine has been mentioned in dispatches across China for more than 15 years, why is it that a pet food scare in 2007, and now this infant formula milk scandal are the only times that the western media has covered the problem?

nissin-cha-cha-dessert It is becoming apparent that contaminated baby formula is not the only problem. Milk, ice cream, yoghurt, confectionery such as chocolates, biscuits and sweets, as well as any foods containing milk from China have been banned from import into Singapore after the country’s agri-food and veterinary authority found melamine in imported samples. Similarly, Taiwanese authorities seized imported products after notification of contamination from Beijing earlier this month. Japan has recalled various products. Canada’s Food Inspection Agency has warned citizens not to eat a dessert – Nissin Cha Cha Dessert – imported from China that has been found to be contaminated with melamine. The authorities in the Philippines are currently testing.

It is curious, but perhaps not surprising, that the Chinese authorities say not a single hospitalisation case has any connection with contaminated milk. Fonterra, parent company of milk producer Sanlu which is at the centre of the scandal says the whole debacle is one of sabotage and that there is no point in the production process at which melamine could have been added. Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier claims an unknown third party put the banned chemical melamine into raw milk supplied to Sanlu. However, the company new about the contamination on August 2, just ahead of the Olympic Games, and claims that Chinese regulations prevented it from going public at the time.

RELATED: Melamine in Milk, this was the original item I posted on the melamine in milk scandal. I’ve also added an UPDATE: Milky Melamine, dated 2008-09-29.

Autumn Leaves

autumn-lake Today, is the first day of autumn, the fall, and Google is celebrating with a new leafy logo. But, why do leaves turn red in the fall? It’s all down to chemistry. Red pigments known as anthocyanins form in leaves from many plant and tree species at the same time as the green photosynthetic apparatus is dismantled by the plant. During this process nutrients containing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are re-absorbed by the plant from its leaves for winter storage and the plant’s waste products in the leaves are left behind. If these nutrients are not resorbed next year’s growth is inhibited. As the levels of green compounds in the leaf falls and anthocyanins rise so the leaves of many species change from verdant to rusty with a range of colours in between. In one sense (according to my high school biology teacher, Mrs Bradley [no relation], the trees are “urinating”, or more strictly, excreting waste in the annual fall.

red-leaves For more information on why leaves turn red in autumn, check out this page from Wisconsin University. Science Made Simple has a nice explanation too as does Dr David Wilkinson from Liverpool John Moore’s University, and the USDA.

As an adjunct to this PNAS has just published a paper that reveals the enzymiccascade that controls abscission, the process that determines how and when plants actually shed their leaves:

S. K. Cho, C. T. Larue, D. Chevalier, H. Wang, T.-L. Jinn, S. Zhang, J. C. Walker (2008). Regulation of floral organ abscission in Arabidopsis thaliana Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0805539105

Autumn Leaves is a jazz classic about the bittersweet symphony that’s life. My singing group Big Mouth cover it in a medley of standards. I’ve created a playlist of the other songs we cover, on Youtube, these are either original versions or, as Jon points out, oddities.

This is an updated post Sciencebase from November 2006. Hope you enjoy my new photos too, top one is a snap I took in the English Lake District one autumn, the second leafy view is of a tree at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire.

Revisiting Chernobyl

chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant Chernobyl. The very name strikes fear into the hearts of those who hate everything about the nuclear industry. It conjures up images of an archaic, burning industrial site spewing out lethal fumes, of farm animals dying of radiation poisoning in their thousands and contaminated meat, of ecosystems devastated, and of people with radiation sickness and for those spared the acutely fatal toxicity, the prospect of cancers to come and perhaps generations of mutations. But…

Korean researchers argue that while the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, was the worst catastrophe involving radiation to humans, but has led to an unfortunate and unwarranted degree of radio-anxiety. It is not radiation that is the health issue, but this anxiety.

Chong-Soon Kim of the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences and colleagues say that despite warnings of pent up health problems from Greenpeace and the World Health Organisation (WHO), “there is no convincing evidence that the incidence of leukaemia or solid cancers have increased in the exposed populations.” They add that the apparent evidence of decreased fertility and increased hereditary effects has not been observed in the general population despite claims to the contrary.

According to the WHO, some 4000 people – emergency workers and residents – died or could die in the future because of Chernobyl. Greenpeace insists that this figure is almost 100,000 across the globe. Kim and colleagues point out first that although the incidence of thyroid cancer has increased in the Chernobyl area, it is actually regions less contaminated by radiation where the greatest incidence has been reported.

“In this case we have to be cautious on the point that the results came from extrapolation using insufficient individual doses, and so far deaths from cancer have not been reported as predicted,” say Kim and colleagues.

The radiation exposure level is the most important factor to estimate the cancer risk due to the Chernobyl accident. There are three types of exposed people. First, the exposure of recovery operation workers ranged up to about 500 millisieverts for a short period after the accident, with an average of about 100 mSv. In the case of evacuees, the average dose estimate of Ukrainian evacuees is 17 mSv (range 0.1-380 mSv), and the estimate for the Belarusian evacuees is 31 mSv, with a maximum of about 300 mSv. The average effective dose estimate of the general population in contaminated areas from 1986 to 2005 (some 5 million people) is 10-20 mSv.

The impact of Chernobyl on mental health and the future of nuclear as a viable renewable energy industry with public support, is perhaps the most serious problem. Among residents of the region and the emergency workers major psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common. Anxiety levels are reported to be twice as high as in controls, the researchers say.

“Health effects, including cancer deaths, due to the Chernobyl accident have not reached the serious situation that was predicted,” the researchers say. There is, of course, some uncertainty in these figures although solid cancers usually form over a fifteen year period, rather than twenty years.

Young Woo Jin, Meeseon Jeong, Kieun Moon, Kwang Hee Yang, Byung Il Lee, Hun Baek, Sang Gu Lee, Chong Soon Kim (2008). Health effects 20 years after the Chernobyl accident International Journal of Low Radiation, 5 (3) DOI: 10.1504/IJLR.2008.020255

Melamine in Milk

melamine-structure-3D UPDATE: Melamine Milk Update, January 22, 2009

Sciencebase will be keeping you updated on the melamine scandal with opinion from the experts and the latest news on the story as it unfolds.

Several thousand babies in China became ill, having apparently suffered acute kidney failure, with several fatalities, having been fed formula milk allegedly contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. The toll is far higher than was previously admitted by the Chinese authorities, according to the BBC. Click here for a list of melamine contaminated products.

One manufacturer recalled all of its powdered milk products in China’s north-west province of Gansu. However, twenty-two brands of milk powder were quickly identified as containing melamine. “The majority of afflicted infants ingested [the] milk powder over a long period of time, their clinical symptoms showed up three to six months after ingesting the problematic products,” Health Minister Chen Zhu told Bloomberg Asia.

Allegedly, someone in the supply change, milk supplier or manufacturer, was adding melamine to the milk formula to artificially inflate the reading for protein levels. Formula milk was not until now tested for melamine, because regulators did not suspect this ingredient might be added. But, it turns out that melamine in the food supply is China’s big open secret.

So, what is melamine and how does it spoof the protein levels in baby formula milk?

melamine-structure Melamine is an organic compound, a base with the formula C₃H₆N₆. Officially it is 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine in the IUPAC nomenclature system (CAS #108-78-1). It is has a molecular mass of just over 126, forms a white, crystalline powder, and is only slightly soluble in water. It is used in fire retardants in polymer resins because its high nitrogen content is released as flame-stifling nitrogen gas when the compound is burned or charred.

Indeed, it is this high nitrogen level – 66% nitrogen by mass – in melamine that gives it the analytical characteristics of protein molecules. Melamine can also be described as a trimer of cyanamide, three cyanamide units joined in a ring. It is described as being harmful according to its MSDS sheet: “Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant.” Not something you would want in your infant’s milk. However, that said, the toxic dose is rather high, on a par with common table salt with an LD50 of more than 3 grams per kilogram of bodyweight.

Previously, melamine was found in exported pet food last year and blamed for killing thousands of cats and dogs in the US. Bloomberg also reports that analysis of samples of ice cream produced by one company have also revealed the presence of melamine. Regardless of crushing inflation and legislative pressure, there is no excuse for the adulteration of food in this way. Diluting a product, the previous approach, is highly unethical and can lead to malnutrition, but straight poisoning is tantamount infanticide. This is also not the first time that Chinese consumers have faced problems with milk powder. In 2004, more than a dozen children died having been fed formula with minimal nutritional content.

But, if melamine has low toxicity (hat tip to commenter Barney) then what is it that has poisoned thousands of babies in China and why has this scandal occurred? Well, LD50, the toxic dose issue, tells us something about acute exposure not the apparent six-months’ worth of accumulated exposure these babies have suffered. Chronic exposure to melamine can lead to bladder or kidney stones and even bladder cancer and as we have learned, acute kidney failure. Health problems such as these can land you in the hospital. Most treatments cannot be given at home, therefore you will not have the comfort of your couch or bed. Many hospitals do not have the luxury of offering ergo mattresses to their patients.

The melamine in milk headlines also ignore the fact that the compound added to the milk may not be pure. There is no reason to imagine that those unscrupulous enough to add a toxic compound to baby formula milk would worry about contaminants, such as cyanuric acid, that might be found in the raw material. Indeed, even if melamine toxicity were not an issue and truly was an inert substance added to spike the protein readings in quality control tests, then any one of the impurities associated with rough melamine manufacture may be a major cause for concern.

UPDATES: A melamine apology from the Chinese premier, Melamine Scandal Widens and Milky Melamine, melamine and kidney failure.

Spray-on Condoms

condom-spray As a kind of follow-up to my Sex and Social Networking post last week, I thought I’d give a mention to the ludicrous idea of spray-on condoms highlighted, in lurid yellow on Geeks are Sexy this week.

This supposedly original idea of applying Latex in spray-on form looks like an April Fool’s joke. First off, it’s not a new idea, especially given the range of colours the inventor is working with. I have heard of several patent applications for similar approaches to contraception and safer sex over the years, they even get a mention in Ben Elton’s book This Other Eden. The idea is fatally flawed on several fronts.

In the heat of passion, I suspect that producing a laboratory-standard uniform layer with no weak points will be impossible and therefore make the device ineffective. However, entanglement of the material with pubic hair would also be a serious issue at the time of desheathing. It’s bad enough removing a band-aid from a grazed knee, but this has the potential to cause much worse pain.

I assume that the process will be safety tested before it is made commercially available, but there are certain characteristics of an aerosol spray that could not be avoided. Primarily, the sprayer and teh sprayee are liable to be breathing more heavily than usual, to have slightly raised blood pressure, and perhaps be open mouthed. The last thing you would want to be near in such circumstances is close to airborne Latex – think potential inhalation, anaphylactic shock and risk of death.

Such a spray would almost certainly be designed for external use only, and yet the organ destined to be coated not only has delicate surface tissues, but an aperture through which particles and carrier solvent might enter. Penile contact dermatitis anyone? Didn’t think so!

And, speaking of solvents, presumably there will be a carrier solvent in which the Latex will be suspended and transported from spraycan to the surface to be coated. The phrase latent heat of evaporation comes to mind and its attendant rapid chilling effect, so there is also potential for frost-bite or at best stinging pain.

There is perhaps one advantage not noted for this approach to condom application, which may benefit some and that is to do with the issue of size becoming irrelevant…no need to distinguish big, large, or extra large, unless, of course, you run out of spray attempting to get 100% coverage.

One more issue. As you can see from the photo of the inventor creating a condom-shaped mess, the process of applying a spray-on condom does not look like a particularly neat and tidy one. If you have ever had difficulty explaining lipstick on your collar, then you will definitely struggle to explain a lurid yellow smear of rubber on your underwear. It almost makes abstinence seem like a viable option.