IU to provide research for condom maker

Indiana University is partnering with the makers of Trojan condoms to conduct research in hopes of improving people's sexual health.

For the next three years, IU's Center for Sexual Health Promotion will work on projects for Church & Dwight, a Princeton, N.J.-based sexual health products company.

"Trojan is the largest condom company in the U.S.," said Michael Reece, center director. "For IU to really have the potential to influence the products they design and the way that they approach the business they do is quite significant."

Under the agreement, the IU Bloomington center serves as a strategic research, education and consulting partner with Trojan. Reece said IU will contract with the firm for each project individually, so he couldn't estimate a total financial value of the agreement.

While all of the research projects are not determined yet, Reece said among the first will be a study of why people decide to use condoms. Initial research will be geared mostly toward heterosexual couples who use condoms as they plan families.

"We don't have a solid scientific understanding of what it is about a relationship or the context of a marriage when condoms are the method of choice," said Reece.

The IU center has done research on adult sexual behavior, sexual health and condoms for years. Faculty from other academic areas, including the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation and the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, also will be involved in conducting research and developing educational materials for Trojan.

The range of expertise at IU will benefit Trojan as it continues to develop high-quality products and evolve the sexual health of America, said Jim Daniels, Trojan vice president of marketing, in a release.

"We want to raise the bar on consumers' definitions of what it means to be sexually healthy and break down the barriers to condom acceptance and usage," said Daniels.

Reece said research that helps Trojan understand consumer demand and produce better products can lead to more consistent and effective use of condoms. Ultimately, he added, that should help reduce unintended pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

SOURCE: Barb Berggoetz, INDYSTAR.COM

Wholesaler sued for fake condoms

Wholesaler sued for fake condoms

New Berlin grocery company also target of FBI inquiry into stolen baby formula</span>
By CARY SPIVAK

Already caught up in an FBI investigation of a scheme to sell stolen infant formula, a New Berlin grocery wholesaler is also in the middle of a complex lawsuit involving the sale and distribution of millions of counterfeit condoms.

Kaloti Enterprises has steadfastly denied dealing in stolen infant formula. But it admits buying and selling a shipment of counterfeit Trojan condoms as well as a load of fake Duracell batteries.

The company's defense: It didn't know the products were counterfeit.

"Kaloti Wholesale Inc. bought a load of condoms from a company in New York that it has dealt with for many different products over the last few years and had never had any problem," Ahmed Quereshi, attorney for Kaloti, said in an interview last week.

Only after Kaloti sold the condoms and batteries did it discover they were not authentic, Quereshi said.

"Condoms and batteries are not top 100 items," Quereshi said, explaining that the company focuses its business on the top 100 products sold in grocery stores - goods such as cereal and detergent. But, he explained, Isaac Kaloti, a part owner, "got a good price" for the condoms and batteries, "and the rest is history."

Geoffrey Potter, lawyer for Church & Dwight Co., Trojan's parent company, was unimpressed with Quereshi's defense.

"I do a lot of these cases, and it's very rare for somebody to say, ' . . . You caught me,' " Potter said.

String of incidents

Invoices filed with the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., show that in January 2007, Kaloti's supplier, Alex Trading Inc., paid a Canadian company $56,000 for 6,400 cases of Trojan condoms and $18,400 for 400 cases of Duracell batteries. The products were immediately sold to Kaloti for an undisclosed amount, and Kaloti then sold them to a third wholesaler, which did not pay for the goods because it discovered they were fraudulent.

Quereshi said that none of the nearly 250,000 condoms made it to market and that this was the only time the firm has been involved in the condom business. Kaloti has agreed to a court injunction not to deal condoms, he said.

The condom lawsuit - an action filed last year in New York against some 40 companies and individuals - was one in a string of embarrassing incidents to hit the wholesaler. The other defendants - none, with the exception of Alex Trading, related to Kaloti - are alleged to have bought and sold more than a million other counterfeit Trojans. Church & Dwight is seeking $10 million from every defendant.

Kaloti was launched 20 years ago with the purchase of one truck by brothers Rassem, Marvin and Isaac Kaloti.

Today, Kaloti Enterprises posts more than $100 million in sales.

Last February, the FBI raided Kaloti's warehouse and seized more than 80,000 cans of infant formula that were believed to have been stolen. Alex Trading, the New York company that sold the counterfeit condoms and batteries to Kaloti, was also the source of some of the infant formula that was seized, according to court records and Kaloti's attorneys.

Alex Trading also denies knowing the condoms and batteries were bogus.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Campbell said in a hearing in Milwaukee last week that criminal charges were expected to be filed in the formula case, though he did not say who would be charged.

Kaloti's president, Rassem Kaloti, declined to be interviewed for this story, calling the situation "a goofy thing" and referring all questions to his lawyers.

The condom lawsuit was filed under seal, an action that allowed Church & Dwight to secretly obtain a court order to seize Kaloti's records on the condom transactions. Local police accompanied Church & Dwight's investigators last Feb. 14 when they made a surprise visit to Kaloti's office to confiscate the records.

Having police on the scene proved fortuitous for federal authorities in the formula case, because while at the Kaloti offices, a New Berlin police sergeant spotted evidence that bolstered the FBI's application for a search warrant in that case.

Potter, the Church & Dwight lawyer, said about four million counterfeit Trojans have been confiscated by law enforcement officials and by his client, a firm best known as the maker of Arm & Hammer baking soda. He said four people have been indicted in connection with the fake Trojans.

Quereshi stressed that with the exception of Alex Trading, Kaloti has not been involved with any of the other players named in the condom litigation.

Potter said he was confident that all the illicit condoms, which he said were likely made in China, have been seized.

While many brand-name products are counterfeited, Potter said, "I must tell you that counterfeiting condoms is pretty distasteful."

Church & Dwight said consumers who have questions or think they may have bought counterfeit condoms can contact its consumer affairs department at (800) 575-2925.



\\\\\ A Note From CondomDepot.com On This Serious Issue //////

Please be aware that there are MANY Counterfeit Condoms are on the Market. We have seen counterfeit condoms specifically as Trojan Magnum and Trojan Elexa Condoms.

Many of the companies that sell these counterfeit condoms are convenience stores, Ebay Stores and Various Online Retailers.

CondomDepot.com is an authorized MASTER Distributor of Condoms and other Safe Sex Products. If you are concerned that a product you purchased elsewhere may be counterfeit, you may contact John Fidi Vice President of CondomDepot.com whose experience in this area can be of assistance.

Sex education failing to curb risky encounters by teenagers

Susan Martinuk
For The Calgary Herald

A Leger Marketing survey on the sexual attitudes of Canada's young women suggests our current approach to sex education isn't working.

Comprehensive, no-holds barred sex education programs were supposed to produce women who are knowledgeable, confident and capable of making smart sexual decisions.

But the survey reveals a very different product: A generation who are sloppy and unknowledgeable about birth control, and relatively unconcerned about risky sexual behaviours.

Despite being pummelled with the 'always use a condom' philosophy, one in five women (aged 16-24) never use condoms. Age and maturity don't matter much, as condom use declines with age. Surprisingly, 23 to 24 year-olds are more likely to not use them than their younger counterparts.

About 90 per cent of these "one in five" are/have been on oral contraceptives (OCs). But that's of little comfort, since they apparently believe that OCs are capable of protecting them against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

If this data is concerning, so is its interpretation by the so-called experts. The Canada-wide news story quoted Saleema Noon, a Vancouver-based, private sexual-health educator. The statistics on birth control pills set off alarm bells for her -- but not for reasons you might think. Her great concern is that 71 per cent of women aren't committed to any particular brand of OC and are open to switching.

The market is about to be flooded by generic OCs. Without a strong commitment to brand-name contraceptives, Noon believes young women will be attracted to the cheaper generic pills that may have different side effects and "haven't been subjected to the rigorous testing" of brand-name pills. As such, she reminds young people it is their "right" to "specifically ask for that brand name" product, and encourages them to stick to it, regardless of price or recommendations of health professionals.

But her worries are false and misleading. Generic drugs have the exact same chemistry as brand-name drugs, and Noon should know that. (Perhaps we should be asking which pharmaceutical companies are supporting Noon and her sales pitch for brand-name products.)

If prominent educators are passing on the wrong information about OCs, it explains some of the confusion exhibited by those who are the products of that education. But it also suggests we should be highly concerned about the accuracy of the information sex educators are handing out.

A second concern raised by this survey is the prominent shift in attitudes towards casual sex. One in four women has what is popularly called a "friend with benefits" (a casual sex partner with no formal relationship or expectations), and 16 per cent of these never use condoms in such situations.

This is the product of our latest sexual revolution: a 'hook-up' culture, where the relationship norm is no dating or commitments; just sex. It seems sex has been recast as a recreational activity, leading one American writer to call it "the new midnight basketball."

Naturally, this attitude has led to an unprecedented epidemic of STDs. Yet sex educators refuse to respond by encouraging changes in sexual behaviour. Instead, they have tweaked the "safe sex" moniker to "safer sex" and worked with Planned Parenthood to change the nasty term "STD" to a more friendly "STI" (sexually transmitted infection) in an effort to alleviate young peoples' worries about STDs.

But STDs aren't always curable, they can recur throughout a lifetime, and they have been implicated in causing infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and the vast majority of the cases of cervical cancer. That's why I refuse to follow suit and falsely communicate the idea that STD infections can easily be cured without any serious or lasting consequences.

Our teens leave high school with more knowledge about sexuality and greater access to birth control than ever before. Yet, somehow, they aren't getting the right message.

One of the most telling stories about attitudes toward sex and how we should respond is a 1993 news story about a high school athletic clique called the Spur Posse.

California police laid rape charges against eight of the elite athletes when it was discovered the group had a competition that awarded a point each time the members had sex with a different girl. The leader had 66 points.

The heart of the problem was revealed when one of the arrested teens told The New York Times, "They pass out condoms, teach sex education and pregnancy-this and pregnancy-that. But they don't teach us any rules."

We expect teens to enter the adult world of sexuality without any rules or expectations -- other than to wear a condom.

Evidently, the biggest problem with sex education may be what we aren't saying to our kids.

Susan Martinuk's column appears every Friday.

Making the love glove sexy

Don't want to be saddled with an STI? Wrap it up before you go for a roll in the hay.

Jennifer Parks, Edmonton Journal

In a nation where sexually transmitted infections (STI) are steadily increasing, many of us would rather play Russian roulette with our bodies than be seen in a drugstore buying condoms.

Access to contraception isn't the main barrier today, although if you live in a small town and your aunt works at the drug store, you may face greater challenges.

We live in a culture that has not yet normalized sexuality or condom use by embracing the love glove as an essential household item, like toilet paper or dish soap.

"Most people can afford contraception these days," says Laura Wershler, a spokeswoman for the non-profit group Sexual Health Access Alberta in Calgary.

"If you can go to Starbucks for coffee or Booster Juice for a smoothie, you can afford to buy condoms. It should be on everyone's grocery list."

Given the statistics, we can't afford not to practice safer sex.

Most young people today have sex before the age of 16, and yet condom use has declined over the past decade, says a new study by the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health.

Scarier still: Alberta has lower rates of condom use than the national average, the study states.

Whose responsibility is it to reverse this troubling trend?

Wershler applauds the courage of one mother who keeps a basket of condoms in the bathroom for her teenagers and their friends.

"The condoms don't get counted, and no questions are asked. If kids are going to have sex anyway, we need to empower them to protect themselves," says Wershler.

This is just one mother, one creative example for other parents, schools and community sex educators to learn from. While some good work is already being done in this area, more is needed -- and fast.

Reported STI rates have been steadily increasing since 1997, says the study.

More than two-thirds of new chlamydia cases occur among young people ages 15 to 24, and many instances go undetected because chlamydia often doesn't show symptoms. National syphilis and gonorrhea rates have also risen, and 20 per cent of new HIV cases occur among people under the age of 30.

"We need to talk about the increasing number of cases among young people," says Barbara Romanowski, infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta.

"There is an increase in gonorrhea cases that are resistant to conventional antibiotics. With condom use, we can decrease the risk of all STIs drastically."

Condoms are nearly 100 per cent effective in preventing STIs, but would be 100 per cent effective if condoms were always used correctly, says Romanowski.

"Condoms break because they're not put on right. It's the most common error."

They can also break when there is too little lubrication during intercourse. Nothing kills the heat of the moment like a condom malfunction, followed by the inevitable worries about pregnancy or STIs.

We need to make condoms sexy again, says sexual health educator Brenda Kerber.

"We think condoms are inconvenient, a bother, that they don't feel good. Why not be more positive?" says Kerber, who owns The Travelling Tickle Trunk, a company that hosts home sex-toy parties.

"Use a condom, reduce your worry. It's much more sexy and fun."

The bottom line: always practise safe sex. Respect yourself and your partner. Don't skip the condom unless you're in a monogamous relationship and both of you have been tested for STIs and HIV, and there is mutual trust.

Don't gamble with your body and health. Some games just aren't worth playing.

Safe Sex Tips

- Always make condoms a part of sexual activity. We're animals. We get conditioned. Before long, the sight of a condom will trigger excitement.

- Keep condoms in your purse, bedside and glove compartment, so you can get to them fast. Don't keep them in your wallet, or anywhere they can be damaged.

- If you know you're going to have sex, take the condom out of the package beforehand so it's ready when you are.

- Have your partner put on the condom. It's more fun if someone is touching you, and it keeps the excitement flowing.

- Always squeeze the end of the condom as you're putting it on to leave room for the ejaculate. If not, it could break.

- Put a drop of lube in the tip of the condom for greater sensation. Use only water-based lubricants like KY Jelly, because oil-based products like Vaseline destroy latex.

Source: Brenda Kerber, The Travelling Tickle Trunk

CondomDepot.com Sponsors Gabriel "Napão" Gonzaga for UFC 80 "Rapid Fire" Live on World Wide Pay-Per-View in England, January 19th

Tampa, FL - CondomDepot.com, a leading distributor of condoms and safe sex education, announces their sponsorship deal with mixed martial artist Gabriel "Napão" Gonzaga for his upcoming fight on January 19th . The UFC 80 "Rapid Fire" event will be broadcasted live on World Wide PPV from the Metro Radio arena in New Castle, England. CondomDepot.com will show their support for Gonzaga as he takes on Fabricio "Vai Cavalo" Werdum. Gonzaga will be sporting extra protection as the CondomDepot.com logo will be on his fighter shorts.

"CondomDepot.com is thrilled to be a part of Gabriel's corner for this event. He has earned numerous achievements and has emerged as one of the world's top MMA heavyweights. We are big fans of the MMA and have a stable of great fighters including Andre "The Pitbull" Arlovski, Ed "Short Fuse" Herman, Chris "The Crippler" Leben, and Pete "Drago" Sell. Our continued support of this sport has also been a great way to nationally promote our positive safe sex message. Our entire staff will be cheering for Gabriel's victory," states John Fidi, Vice President of CondomDepot.com. "I am excited about this sponsorship deal with CondomDepot.com and to be a part of spreading their positive safe sex message. I would like to thank CondomDepot.com for their support, and am proud to display their logo on my fighter shorts," Gonzaga stated.

ABOUT GABRIEL "NAPÃO" GONZAGA

Born on May 18, 1979 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Gonzaga, an accomplished Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu player, made his debut in the MMA in April of 2003 and earned a record of 4-1 losing only against Fabricio Werdum. He holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Wander Braga, and is a former member of the Chute Boxe Academy. From his earlier successes, UFC took notice of him and Gonzaga signed a contract and made his UFC debut at UFC 56. Gonzaga won by knockout over Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic on April 21, 2007, which earned him a UFC Heavyweight Title shot with Randy Couture. He won the Mundials (2004), which is considered to be the top BJJ competition in the world. His current overall MMA record is 8-2-0 and fights out of Ludlow Massachusetts for Team Link.

ABOUT CONDOMDEPOT.COM

CondomDepot.com is a provider of safe sex information, product reviews and safer sex products. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, CondomDepot.com sells its products wholesale to the public through its highly visited website while offering its safe sex information free of charge. Product lines include Trojan, Durex, Lifestyles, Crown, Trustex, AstroGlide, Pjur and other hard to find brands. For more information please contact Marketing Director Jennifer Amato (813) 885-4400 xt 16 or visit the website www.condomdepot.com

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CondomDepot.com To Announce Sponsorship Deal with UFC's Gabriel Gonzaga

TAMPA, FLORIDA - January 8, 2008

CondomDepot.com To Announce Sponsorship Deal with UFC's Gabriel Gonzaga


This Press Release Is Issued As A Headline Only.

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