Can’t help thinking that they’re missing a trick here. The basic idea is excellent:
Sanitary towels and tampons that turn pink if a woman has thrush are being developed by scientists in India.
There are all sorts of infections that attack the lady bits. Warm, moist – well, except for certain hellions of course – etc, bugs love it.
“Through this technology, we have shown that everyday personal products such as sanitary pads and tampons can be transformed into simple yet effective analytical devices rather economically,” Dr Mani said.
“Possible variations of the technology could see all manner of diseases being tested through these devices.
“Our own lab is working on integrating a multimodal testing system onto sanitary pads and tampons which could test for numerous pathogens/biomarkers for a myriad of urinary tract infections simultaneously.
“It’ll essentially be a one-stop-shop for most of your testing needs and will return significant autonomy to disenfranchised women who may not have access to traditional testing either due to low resources or social taboos.
“In its final form, we envisage the product being used just as any other sanitary pad or tampon but with the added benefit of indicating if there is an infection present.”
Can’t fault the idea.
It’s just the colour that worries. The normal discharge is red, pink just seems a bit close to that for a diagnostic test. Why not blue? Or green, or orange, or summat?
Years ago I heard an interview with the late Claire Rayner on BBC R4. She recounted the story of how she was recruited to help develop the first British adverts for feminine hygiene products. The team put a lot of time into choosing the colour of the liquid they would use to demonstrate the product’s absorbability. Red suggested blood, yellow urine and green infection. So they went with blue. And it’s been blue ever since for the same reason.
They should hire Prince Charles as a marketing consultant.
“Warm, moist – etc, bugs love it”
Just like the inside of the face masks that millions have been brainwashed into believing will protect them…