Box of 30 o.b. non-applicator tampons, regular, absorbency rating 11

Box of 30 o.b. non-applicator tampons, regular, absorbency rating 11, "women gynecologist design", toxic shock syndrome warning on reverse of pack, Personal Products Company, USA, 1980-1990

Digital tampons, so named because they could be inserted with a single finger (or digit) rather than requiring an applicator, became increasingly popular from the 1950s after Dr Judith Esser-Mittag, a German gynaecologist, developed an applicator-free design that expanded widthways. The device became known as the o.b., standing for ‘ohne binde’ which translates to ‘without (a) pad’.

Esser-Mittag partnered with entrepreneur Carl Hahn to start the o.b. tampon company, which was taken over by Johnson & Johnson in 1974. The brand was launched in the United States soon after. This pack of 30 regular tampons, produced in the 1980s, celebrates Esser-Mittag’s design. She herself appeared in some American television advertisements.

In 1982, the US government introduced new rules requiring warning labels on packaging after higher absorbency tampons were shown to be associated with an increased risk of developing toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a rare but life-threatening condition caused by bacterial infection. Standardised absorbency testing was introduced in the same decade.