If the bottles and teats are no longer sterilized with ethylene oxide, the Igas points to the possible use of this carcinogenic agent to sterilize medical devices.
In 2010, the majority of single-use bottles purchased by French maternity hospitals were sterilized with a carcinogenic agent, ethylene oxide. A practice that violated the regulations, recognized last December the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) which made public a report on this subject dating from July 2012.
Ironically, this report by the Igas was published three weeks after the conviction on appeal for defamation of Suzanne de Bégon, the whistleblower of this case. For the record, this report follows on from an article in the Nouvel Observateur in November 2011, who had denounced the use in maternity hospitals of bottles, teats and breast shields sterilized with ethylene oxide. Xavier Bertrand, Minister of Health, then instructed the Igas to take stock of the situation in health establishments and analyze the regulations in force and their compliance. It’s now done. The survey conducted by the Igas notes that in 2010 French maternity hospitals purchased 27 million items used to feed infants (bottles, teats, nipples, syringes and probes) sterilized with ethylene oxide.
What is the origin of this aberrant situation? For Igas, “concerns in terms of infectious safety have led health establishments to gradually generalize the use of single-use medical devices, whose sterilization is thus carried out at the source, in an industrial environment”. The sterilization of these devices with ethylene oxide, abandoned in the hospital due to its toxicity, has thus developed in the medical device industry due to its efficiency, low cost and adaptability. to plastics that water vapor melts.
“Bottles have followed the general trend, especially after the publication by the former French food safety agency of specific recommendations: glass bottles have thus been replaced by disposable plastic bottles, most often assimilated, to regarding sterility, to medical devices ”. Finally, the presence of a standard validating “admissible” residual ethylene oxide levels after sterilization has established confidence both within the hospital system and within the industrial sector. But as the authors of the Igas report reminded us, “this standard was developed for adults weighing 70 kg and does not distinguish between devices in contact with foodstuffs …”
The Ministry of Health did not wait for the IGAS report to react. In April 2012, the General Directorate of Health (Dgs) made an opinion. She advises health care facilities not to use bottles sterilized with ethylene oxide for term infants. However, this sterilization method can still be used for newborns cared for in neonatal departments as well as for infants “suffering from serious pathologies with an increased risk of infection”. In fact, the Dgs considers in its conclusions that there is no sufficiently effective alternative sterilization process.
Is the case closed? No. “We are only in the middle of the ford, the question of pacifiers and bottles is however only the tip of the iceberg”, explains Olivier Toma, chairman of the committee for sustainable development in health (C2DS). We must question the use of ethylene oxide in the sterilization of medical devices (catheters, probes, enteral feeding devices, etc.), implants and prostheses (breast prostheses, orthopedic implants, implants intraocular …). If ethylene oxide is known to be toxic for teats, how can it not be for enteral feeding devices, for example? ”
Listen to Olivier Toma, president of C2D: “The basic problem is multiple exposure to toxic products.”
A question taken up by the Igas which asks the health authorities to also study, beyond bottles, teats and nipples, other articles contributing to the feeding of infants, as well as adults, in a hospital environment. And then beyond this question of sterilization with ethylene oxide, Olivier Toma, former clinical director, reminds us that we must be interested in all the products dangerous to health that can sometimes be found in contact with patients and health professionals.
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