To begin, here is the quote of the day, the week, and even possibly the entire work experience program: “I’m still trying to get this lubricant off of my hands.” This was calmly/ordinarily said by our esteemed tour guide, our biology expert, at FHI 360’s product quality and control center, more commonly known as the PQC. There, people are tasked with testing contraceptives – condoms, IUDs, tablets – as well as other items including bed nets and more in many different ways.
Although most people would find the discussion of condoms and contraceptives uncomfortable, awkward or downright embarrassing, Hope, Caroline, Maddie and I quickly became immune to this type of talk following today’s interesting (to say the least) experience. Despite being kindly lectured on the difficulty of reaching this destination, Celia, Maddie, and I found the PQC with ease; Hope and Caroline piled into the car with Lauren and followed.
Upon arrival, we were each given a pair of safety glasses, to be worn at all times in the lab, validating the “realness” of the situation. We were immediately shown the various tests condoms go through, both male and female, with demonstrations.
First, we saw condoms being attached to a device and filled with a certain amount of water, testing whether or not they had holes and were able to hold a certain mass. If just two of the selected batch failed, the entire group is found to be unacceptable. In addition to this, the water-filled condoms were tied at the end and rolled onto a board, again testing their structure.
The next part of the tour was probably the coolest: the Airbust. We entered a room with a sign outside labeled something along the lines of “DANGER! Use ear protection.” Yes, we were going to explode condoms. This test is particularly important, for each condom must reach a certain volume when filled with air, and pop once it reaches a certain pressure. It was interesting because female condoms exploded in around thirty seconds, a substantially shorter time frame than that of males.
Once leaving this test, we went to another room, where the odor of condoms was being tested: someone was tasked with taking observations of the odor 90 days after it was manufactured, 120, 180, etcetera because users sometimes refrain from usage due to their bad smell after a certain period of time. In this same room, there were also refrigerators that monitored various contraceptives in different temperatures, allowing the scientists to see in what conditions they were still effective in, among other things.
This pretty much concluded our biological tour, and we were then handed over to a chemist to talk about the tests they go through. Although chemistry isn’t one of my favorite subject matters, I was immensely interested in the tests they use, from chromatography to dissolving tablets in a wide range of solvents. It was cool to see how the various tests went hand in hand, and how some of them preserved the tablet while others destroyed it. A rising problem is counterfeit, so one of the main jobs of these people is to ensure the tablet is composed of what the company (or manufacturer) says it is. They also utilize computer software to assist their data collection; for example, graphs are electronically drawn depicting a “peak” which serves as a means of comparison the standard pill.
All in all, this experience was really cool, and it was quite neat to see the long process each method goes through before it can be sent to the low-resource settings. I am excited to bring this knowledge to our projects and am sad our week has come to an end!
