Speaking of Condoms . . .

In August Toronto Public Health (TPH) and the City of Toronto released the new city branded condom design based on the Pan Am Toronto sign. TPH planned to unleash 290,000 condoms for the fall of 2016, just in time for the start of school. Did you know the City has been handing out free condoms since the 1980s?

copyright Hilary Caton/Metroland - new City of Toronto 2016 branded explore TO condom design.

The City and TPH have also been running CondomTO design contests since 2014 (to coincide with World Pride being held in Toronto). Toronto Public Health just recently ran the 2016 CondomTO contest to design a unique condom wrapper for Toronto. That's a lot of condom activity. Below are a couple of the designs.

The winner was Andrea Por from Humber College.

The runner up by Janine Thomas from York/Sheridan.

You can see all the finalists here - they're pretty creative - who would imagine a little latex circle could inspire such creativity.

I began to think about the condom. I wondered about the history, the design, the significance as a birth control and safe sex method, the prevalence of condoms and the change in attitudes towards sex and condom use. A couple of vintage photos reminded me of the serious truth - condoms are a product that needs to meet rigorous industrial standards in its aim to protect users and sexual partners.

1990 Toronto Star Archives photo "Breakage test: Federal regulations require that a condom can be filled with 25 litres of air before bursting. The test helps detect minor flaws"

If you too are wondering about the condom then the following might be of interest.

A modest book, The Humble Little Condom, but it "covers" the subject. Quite a bit broader is Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America, but the nice thing about this book is the context it provides historically and vis a vis other birth control methods.





I never thought about the decorative quality to condoms but Condom Sense A Guide to Sexual Survival in the New Millenium's cover has certainly taken advantage of that aesthetic opportunity (as did Toronto Public Health/TPH) for its art work. The book's content is more serious and solidly around condoms as contraception and as promoting safe sex in the AIDS and other sexual diseases environment.

To quote TPH:

"Remember to use a new condom every time you have oral, anal or vaginal sex. Condoms decrease the risk of sexually transmitted infections, HIV and/or unplanned pregnancy. More information about condoms can be found on our resources page"







Beginning in the 1980s the AIDS epidemic brought heightened attention to condom use and safe sex, albeit sometimes in unpredictable ways.

1990 Toronto Star Archives photo "Sage advice, Mr. Condom - also known as Louis Taffo - talks to San Diego Bruno yesterday on St. Clair Ave. W. Taffo, who was handling out condoms and AIDS information, is from Vitanova, a centre that helps Metro Italians."

For something a bit more esoteric and quirky I was intrigued by Fromms : how Julius Fromm's condom empire fell to the Nazis, which takes us back to the economics and manufacturing side of condoms. Who knew?





Toronto Public Health has a very informative website with a list of free Sexual Health Clinics that offer the following services including free condoms (you do not need a referral or OHIP coverage to visit a clinic):

Birth control counselling

Low cost or free birth control

Free condoms

Plan B (emergency contraceptive pill)

STI testing and free treatment

HIV testing

Pregnancy testing, counselling and referral

Sexuality and relationship counselling

Rounding out (pardon the small pun) our quick condom survey you may know that Toronto Public Library recently joined Toronto Reddit. And from Reddit we offer the following posting on Free Condoms in Toronto.