Filenews 26 October 2021 - by Marilena Panagi
Experts were rushing to give answers and reassure citizens yesterday, since the information released to identify a dangerous and carcinogenic substance in cotton buds, used to carry out both rapid antigen tests and molecular tests for the detection of coronavirus, caused great uproar and long hours of discussions and tensions on social media.
In fact, the Pancyprian Guild "Equality", citing this information, which was accompanied by the results issued by a private laboratory, called on the Ministry of Health to proceed with a relevant investigation or even to stop carrying out checks to detect coronavirus cases, until the necessary tests are carried out, since, as it claims, the specific substance, of ethylene oxide, was found on the cotton swabs, "at a concentration level multiple (36x) of the limit of detection of the applied method (German standard L53.00-11999-11 with analysis in GC-EAD gas chromatography system)".
The explanation from the ministry of health and experts completely different. As the associate professor of Pharmacology, Christos Petrou, told "F", "the limit of detection of a method has nothing to do with the permitted limits, but has to do with the sensitivity of the method used" and underlined that "the reported method of analysis concerns food and not medical equipment". In other words, he said, "the method is not validated and this analysis is intended for seed testing e.g. sesame seeds for the presence of ethylene oxide. Therefore, the use of a method, which is not validated for this purpose, automatically renders the analysis invalid."
According to Mr. Petrou, "ethylene oxide has been used for decades to sterilize medical equipment and not only. The substance becomes dangerous when exposure to it is large (long time and quantity), and evaporates to 10.7 degrees Celsius." In addition, he said, "the safety limits for exposure to ethylene oxide according to official agencies are 1ppm for 8-hour exposure and 5ppm for 15-minute exposure. 1 ppm = 1 mg/kg. To understand how infinitesimal this amount is, even if the method of analysis used was not valid, there will be 0.36mg of ethylenoxide in one kilogram of rapid test swabs, that is, there will be 0.36 ppm, three times below the limit for 8-hour exposure."
