World's thinnest condom 'finer than a human hair'

ERJ staff report (TP)

Kanagawa, Japan − Scientists have been busy racing to figure out what materials will make the thinnest and most flexible condoms. So far, Japanese company Sagami Rubber Industries has been winning, reported Lecia Bushak for Medical Daily.

Over the course of ten years, engineers at Sagami tested over 20,000 condoms and designed a condom that was only 0.01 mm thick − yet entirely durable. To put that into perspective, an average human hair is about 0.06 mm thick.

“Honestly, I don’t know how we can make them thinner than this,” a Sagami researcher said, “but as long as there is a need for thinner, we will continue researching 0.009 mm and 0.008 mm thinness.” The condom is called ‘Sagami Original 0.01’. It costs about $12 (€8.74).

The Sagami Original 0.01 isn’t the first ultra-thin, specially designed condom out there. Plenty of other condoms − many designed in Japan − exist, though they are slightly more expensive than traditional condoms. Sagami, which has been around since 1935, had previously designed a 0.02 mm-thick condom before their Sagami Original 0.01. Sagami was the country’s first condom manufacturer, and the first in the world to produce coloured condoms.

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