According to a new study on the safety of sexual lubricants, women who sleep with partners infected with HIV increase their chances of contracting the disease when they use the spermicide nonoxonyl-9 several times a day during intercourse. As part of the study, which appears in the September 28th issue of The Lancet, Dr. Lut Van Damme and other researchers with the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium examined the sexual habits of nearly 400 prostitutes in four countries, discovering that women who used nonoxynol-9-containing lubricant three or more times a day were twice as likely to contract HIV as women who did not use the spermicide. Investigators were surprised by the study's results, as reports once indicated that nonoxynol-9 prevented HIV transmission.