Carcinogen used on baby bottles

AN INVESTIGATION has been ordered by the health minister into the use of a carcinogenic substance to sterilise baby bottles.

Xavier Bertrand said bottles, rubber teats and breast shields which have been sterilised with ethylene oxide will be rapidly withdrawn.

“This sterilisation procedure is not allowed for material that will be in contact with food because it is considered to cause cancer in humans,” he said. He added he wanted to find out how “things could have gone wrong in such a way”.

The procedure is authorised for sterilising medical supplies but this does not apply to baby bottles and teats, which are purely for feeding, not for any medical use. However the French press revealed it is nonetheless used by some manufacturers supplying hospitals.

One of them, Cair LCL, told Le Figaro it was without danger because the gas evaporates during storage and no traces are detectable. A spokeswoman added they were checked every three years by Afssaps, a health products safety agency.

However a toxicologist, André Picot, told Le Nouvel Observateur that, in particular in the case of the rubber used for teats, total elimination was not possible. In his view there is “no acceptable level” for safety, the substance being capable of causing cancer even if present in just a few molecules.

However another toxicologist, Professor Narbonne, told Le Figaro babies would not be exposed long enough during their time in hospital for any harm to ensue. He said it remained to be seen whether, as a matter of principle, “we can tolerate a carcinogen to be applied to a teat”.