We've completed our writeup of our Pampers Dry Max skin irritant testing and published a final report you can read online, download, print out, or share with others. We'll summarize a bit here, but the full ten-page report is useful for anyone who has cared about this issue, for anyone who cares about others who have been affected by it, and for anyone who thinks this whole issue is a media or corporate conspiracy. Read our study for yourself and see what you think.

• Measurement of Relative Skin Irritation of Pampers Dry Max Disposable Diapers

From the report:

We believe the most significant finding of our study is its demonstration that, when compared with a leading competitor or its own previous formulation, Pampers with Dry Max are more likely to cause extended irritation persisting long after the diaper is changed. Examining the behavior of this rash when the skin is repeatedly re-covered with another diaper which is then soiled or wetted on top of the persistent rash, was beyond the scope of this study; but it does not feel excessively speculative to posit that a rash so treated would be more likely to deteriorate further than skin that showed no signs of being compromised.

A more troubling finding, and a highly illuminating one, is that beyond this overall difference in performance, Dry Max Pampers from two different "batches" were associated with different levels of both initial and extended irritation. These differences were documented both by a blinded "scent test" and by their tracking codes. The batch linked to all cases of extended irritation, and which triggered the sole reaction to a urine-containing diaper in this study, was the batch that had been acquired from a consumer whose own child had suffered from severe diaper rash while wearing diapers from the same package.

Of all the people with whom we will ultimately come knocking to share our findings directly, we are most interested in sharing it with Procter & Gamble. We're interested in an ongoing dialogue with them and will be offering them the chance to follow up on our findings with some specific information that might shed further light on our testing and on their Dry Max diapers.

Read the study here, judge our methods and our analysis for yourself, and pass it on.

Thanks to all of those who sent or offered to send diapers for us to test, for those who read and commented on our draft versions of this study, and most of all to the readers who contributed financially to make this study happen.

Note: We're leaving comments off on this post because this report involved not only a lot of work but some personal sacrifice, and we'd like it to allow it to stand alone on our pages for consumers to access and come to their own conclusions about. That said, if you feel this report is meaningful or scurrilous, we encourage you to discuss, excerpt, reprint, distribute, analyze, and praise or pan on your own blog, with the lovers and haters on Babycenter, or anywhere else you see fit. If you talk about it on a blog, rest assured that we do read what other bloggers say about what we do, and we're sure your readers would enjoy the discussion as well. We are also always accessible to anyone upfront about their identity, and can be reached at editors (at) zrecs (dot) com with your questions, comments, and criticisms.

Don't know what this is about? Here's more ZRecs reporting on Pampers Dry Max than you can shake a stick at.