CHINA’S RECYCLING tradition is turning into a nightmare. To everyone’s horror, local markets and beauty saloons in southern China’s Guangdong province are flooded with rubber hair bands made out of recycled condoms.

Reportedly, a bag of 10 hair ties costs about 25 fens (three cents) at local markets and bazaars much cheaper than others in the market, accounting for their popularity.

While condoms are meant to safeguard a person from sexually transmitted diseases, hair bands made out of used condoms are a potential threat to spread those sexually-transmitted diseases.

Despite the fact that used condoms are being recycled, potentially it could still contain some amount of dangerous bacteria and viruses. Using hair bands made out of it is certainly life-threatening.

Health officials and local doctors opined that in every possibility, women and young girls could be infected with AIDS, genital warts or other skin related diseases if they casually hold the hair bands in their mouths while working their plaits.

It is the latest addition to the long list of potentially harmful Chinese-made products such as toys, tooth paste, pet food, etc. Health officials should intervene immediately and ban the use of this product, which otherwise will pose a major threat to public health in China.