9 ms·
Human toxicity from Covid-19 rapid home test kits
- rjzzleep 5y agoIn Taiwan they required newborn infants to do 4 PCRs and 3 at home tests. These tests are administered in the mouth(Rapid Antigen tests are actually only rated for children above 2). It was infuriating to watch the absurdity and sheer insanity of where the Taiwan CDC has gone. 7 Tests in 3 weeks for a less than 1 year old and then privately telling businesses that they only have to quarantine for 3 days if they have urgent business to attend to. EDIT: I wrote something stupid. Obviously they don't ingest the reagent fluid. I conflated this issue with the fact that the fibers in the swabs damage the nasopharyngeal mucosa.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- KaiserPro 5y ago> that the infant will ingest it. Unless someone is doing it _very_ wrong, they are not going to ingest the buffer solution. The Swab does not contain sodium azide (well it shouldn't). So unless the infant is double dipping, or left alone within grasp of the test kit, its not a high risk. The bigger risk is the misplaced swab.
- seszett 5y agoWhy would kids ingest the reagents though? Especially newborns won't even have the idea or the physical possibility to take them and put them in their mouth.
- refurb 5y agoI feel safer already!
- dpark 5y agoWhy is this infuriating? I don’t know the scenario you’re describing but presumably swabbing infants is about protecting them. Infants are at higher risk than older kids and it could certainly make sense to keep tabs on whether they might be catching COVID in the hospital after birth. That’s scary stuff for a baby with no immune system to speak of. Wiping a swab in an infant’s mouth isn’t going to irreparably harm it. If you’re that worried about the swabs, how do you feel about the fact that they squirt their eyes full of medicine immediately after birth to prevent blindness? That’s got to be more disturbing to the baby.
- antihero 5y agoWho on earth is putting covid tests in their eye?
- HarryHirsch 5y agoBecause people are dumb on average, and half are dumber than that.
- 656565656565 5y agoExactly, or drinking the binder
- shp0ngle 5y agoI would guess the main danger here is children.
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoChildren and adults regularly mix up eye drops with superglue: https://adc.bmj.com/content/90/11/1193 https://adc.bmj.com/content/90/11/1193
- ageitgey 5y agoI guess it is important to study everything that could go wrong, because kids will eat anything, etc. But the main point here is... obviously don't eat the chemicals that come with a covid test. And don't use the chemical reagent dropper as eye drops.
- dkarl 5y agoAnd keep medicine away from kids.
- jonnat 5y agoImportant recommendations from the article: don't eat, drink, or put in the eye most parts of a Covid test. The article doesn't mention the paper package, you might be safe eating that.
- chrisweekly 5y agoI'm reminded of a book from my childhood, "Don't Eat the Daisies". (And the infamous McDonalds "coffee might be hot" lawsuit.)
- shirleyquirk 5y agoMcD would like this to continue being a cliche example of frivolous litigation, but the opposite is true. https://negrettilaw.com/news/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit-facts/ https://negrettilaw.com/news/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit-facts/ or any other search result will tell you: - She was hospitalised for 8 days, suffered burns to her pelvic /bones/, was disabled for 2 years. - She offered to settle for the cost of her hospital bill, McD refused. - McD were keeping the coffee at 190°F
- dekhn 5y agono bones were burned. that's absurd.
- shirleyquirk 5y ago>In some areas, the burn went as deep as subcutaneous fat, muscle, or bone (photos are not for the faint of heart). https://www.lawphx.com/blog/2017/march/mcdonald-s-hot-coffee-lawsuit/ https://www.lawphx.com/blog/2017/march/mcdonald-s-hot-coffee...
- dekhn 5y agothere's no photos on the site, and like any lawyer, they used an OR statement which evaluates ambiguously Other reports state skin damage (second or third degree burns) which are serious. Remember, lawyers always use appeals to emotion and other tricks to overstate things to get the best possible outcome (a settlement in this case).
- throwthere 5y agoThe pertinent points from the article are1) reagents contain chemicals (I kid you not about the article making this point). Chemicals are known to be potential irritants and some may cause allergic reactions. And 2) sodium azide ingestion leads to transient hypotension which could be seen in kids because of their smaller body size meaning higher effective dose per weight. poison control in the US reports 153 ingestions with no sequalae.
- netizen-936824 5y agoAre people ingesting the chemicals that come in the kits for incubating the sample??? What the actual fuck, there are instructions
- xyzzy123 5y agoPicture frazzled parents with a 5yo, 4yo and 2yo trying to administer RAT tests in morning, everyone is getting increasingly late, 2yo is screaming and fighting with whole body, because he knows the drill and really, really dislikes it. It's not that easy to mix the things, find the missing shoes, time it all right, pack the bags and also keep everything perfectly out of reach. TBH I had not thought very hard about the toxicity of the reagents. Some places ask that you place the completed test for that day in the child's bag.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- moron4hire 5y agoAs a person with small children who does have to do this, it actually is easy. We need to stop normalizing "frazzled parents can't handle their kids", because I see a lot of parents around in my neighborhood who do use it as an excuse to not handle their kids.
- PakG1 5y agoPerhaps a better way to say it would be it's not necessarily easy, but it's doable and necessary.
- jefftk 5y agoI wonder whether I should worry about toxicity if I've been using them correctly? since the reagent solution packaging may include ampules that allow for application of drops of solution to the test device, inadvertent ocular sodium azide exposures can occur if the ampule is mistaken for an eyedropper. Ok, then...
- SapporoChris 5y agoI look forward to the please do not eat test kit warning.
- zdragnar 5y agoI have a scalp solution for psoriasis. Once, I noticed that it felt a bit different three days in a row (didn't burn when I applied it). Finally, on the third day, I actually looked at the bottle. Turns out, the bottle looks exactly like the bottle of saline nasal rinse. I was just applying slightly salty water to my scalp. Funny and frustrating as it was, I am SO glad I didn't spray a highly potent typical steroid into my sinuses...
- jlturner 5y agoJust used one of these the other day. No way you’re mistaking the liquid with a twist off cap as an eye dropper (unless you’re blindly dropping mystery liquids in your eye). Dermal contact is more likely. They do have ample warnings on the box though and there are plenty of other toxic things in our environment that we consciously don’t apply to the skin, so I don’t really see the problem here aside from “may contain harmful ingredients use caution”.
- NoGravitas 5y ago"Keep out of reach of children" appears to be the take-home message.
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago> No way you’re mistaking the liquid with a twist off cap as an eye dropper (unless you’re blindly dropping mystery liquids in your eye). The free NHS rapid LFT in the UK has a little single-dose ampule you break open by twisting off part of the plastic, a lot like disposable eye drop ampules. Basically identical.
- blackkat 5y agoDepending upon where you grew up, eye drops (both medicated and non) are supplied in single use droppers that have twist off tops that look exactly the same. Personal experience and knowledge does not map perfectly to others experiences.
- dpark 5y agoReally depends on the kit. The ones I’ve used don’t have a dropper at all. They came with a prefilled (capped) tube. Certainly those aren’t going to be mistaken for eye dropper bottles. But not all kits are the same. (The ones I got are more likely to be accidentally spilled when prying those caps off. Maybe more of a hazard.)
- api 5y agoPSA: do not drink the reagent solution or suck on the swab like a lollipop after the test. That's pretty much it.
- tasha0663 5y agoGreat. Now the Do Your Own Research people won't test because of the toxic chemicals. Nice work. Can't the ivory tower just sit on these a little while? Don't they know the depths of stupidity out there?
- foxyv 5y agoOne thing I've been doing with a lot of stuff is just keeping medications in the original packaging. A lot of stuff just looks the same because it's all from the same manufacturers.