Questions Raised About Shoddy Condom Packaging

WASHINGTON - D.C.'s free condoms are proving to be unpopular -- not because people don't want them but because people are questioning their packaging.

More than 100,000 of them have been returned. People are complaining the paper packaging tears easily and could make the condoms ineffective. Condoms sold in stores are packaged in foil.

There also are complaints that packaging looks suspicious and that the expiration dates on the Chinese-made condoms are illegible. They come in a yellow and purple wrapper. From the start, the wrappers raised eyebrows with the slogan "Coming Together in D.C. to Stop HIV."

A coalition that's been giving out the condoms to help combat HIV infections has returned 15 percent of the condoms the city has distributed. While D.C. has been praised for its efforts to distribute 1 million condoms, organizations that distribute the condoms say demand has dropped drastically at two distribution sites in Southeast.

D.C. started the program to distribute condoms because the city has one of the highest AIDS rates in the nation.

D.C. Health department officials say they don't think there's a problem with the nearly 650,000 condoms they've given out so far. They say they haven't received any substantive complaints.

(Copyright 2007 WTOP and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)