Tin-can time capsule

In the course of some tidying up, I happened upon this can of 2008-Olympics-themed Johnson & Johnson band-aids. They were manufactured in China but the labeling on the tin is Japanese.

The can and all of the band-aids are adorned with depictions of the 2008 Summer Olympics official mascots (Fuwa).

If I am correctly interpreting the lot number printed at the bottom of the rear of the can, these band-aids were manufactured on March 11, 2008. The use-by/expiration date was February of 2011, many years ago now.

Opening the can for the first time, I could see even before extracting the contents that all of the band-aids’ wrappers had yellowed.

The colorful designs on the thin plastic strap material of the band-aids were visible through the translucent paper or paper-feely plastic wrappers and looked pristine.

Attempting to peel a couple of the band-aids, however, revealed that they had in fact deteriorated. Bits of the strap material of the leftmost band-aid stuck to the upper half of the wrapper and the rest clung to thicker, two-part backing like a booger stuck to the inside of a nostril. The other two band-aids look alright but were just as boogerish and couldn’t be removed from their backing material in one piece.

Above: a closer look at the obviously disintegrating band-aid from the preceding photo. Where the band-aid material is gone, you can see the pieces of waxy, non-stick backing paper printed with the trade-marked Johnson & Johnson blue cursive logo.