Prediction of shelf life of natural rubber male condoms-A necessity

Most condom manufacturers claim a 5-year shelf life. A predictive test for condom shelf life is needed, because products shipped to tropical climates have decayed much more rapidly than the stated shelf life would suggest. In this work, five brands of condoms were aged under ambient conditions for 5 years, and in an oven at 50 and 70 °C for various times up to 182 days. The inflation test was used as an indicator of the condom quality. Burst volume and pressure under ambient conditions and after oven conditioning were compared, at various time points, in order to find an optimum combination of temperature and time to predict shelf life using elevated temperature accelerated aging. It was shown that aging at 50 °C provides some predictive information about shelf life, but aging at 70 °C is not as useful.