What size should a condom be? Europeans have certainly got some food for thought on the subject.
MSU graduate student Carol Dorn helped the European Common Market identify the “condom needs” of Europeans.
“[It was] establishing European-wide standards for the condom just like we have standards for the condom in the United States.”
She notes all condoms in the United States are manufactured by the same standards and that is what the European Common Market wants to do.
“They are testing everything and one of those things is the condom.”
Dorn found not every country wanted the same thing. She says, “Different countries were pushing for different standards. The Norwegians wanted their condom to be longer. The French wanted the condom to be bigger around.”
Countries in the common market are not the only ones lobbying for changes.
“The Swiss and the Austrians wanted the condom to be made out of material that would stand up to vigorous use,” Dorn says.
Italians, on the other hand, wanted condoms that were longer and wider.
She has heard from Food and Drug Administration officials that the United States is also looking for a condom standard for both sides of the Atlantic. Why? When companies can manufacture large amounts of a product at once, they usually save money.
“If [condom makers] can manufacture one condom and sell it both in Europe and in the United States (they] are better off than coming up with two different standards,”Dorn says.
Perhaps you’re wondering how much condom standards differ in the United States and Europe? Condom manufacturers do water tests to see how much bacteria can get through the condom when it is expanded.
“This is important in things like AIDS as far as how small the thing is that can get through the latex when in its expanded form,” Dorn says.
“Their condoms are inflated to a larger standard than the American ones. Americans inflate their condoms to 3.5 quarts and the Europeans inflate theirs to [4.24 quarts].”
But, Dorn adds, there is a bigger future for United States condoms if the U.S. “bring[s] its standards in line with the [European standards.]”
