Hair-Band Made Of Condom

I got this shocking email yesterday. After reading this, I checked every hair band I got. I don’t know whether this is true, but I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I know that not all factories in China do this kind of thing, but sometimes I am wandering how come they can sell things so cheaply. I also work in a manufacturing company, and these last 5 years my sales have dropped a lot as our price cannot compete with our competitors from China.

The funny thing is, in the end we opened another factory in China to make use of the cheap labor, but our price is still higher than our China competitors. It really makes me wonder.

"BEIJING (AFP) - Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent, state media reported Tuesday.

In the latest example of potentially harmful Chinese-made products, rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said.

People could be infected with AIDS, (genital) warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while waving their hair into plaits or buns,' the paper quoted a local dermatologist who gave only his surname, Dong, as saying. A bag of ten of the recycled bands sells for just 25 s en (three cents), much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity, the paper said. A government official was quoted as saying recycling condoms was illegal.

China 's manufacturing industry has been repeatedly tarnished this year by a string of scandals involving shoddy or dangerous goods made for both domestic and foreign markets.