COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mask mandates come and go but there's an important tool that remains: COVID-19 tests. There's a false claim showing up in social media feeds saying they can cause cancer.
This is not true and 10TV's Lindsey Mills takes the claim to three experts to verify why.
THE CLAIM:
COVID-19 tests cause cancer because a chemical used to sterilize them is a carcinogen.
THE ANSWER:
False.
The sources:
- Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Dr. Jessica Shepherd - the chief medical officer for Verywell Health
Dr. Joe Gastaldo - an infectious disease specialist at OhioHealth
Here’s what we found:
The claim is that COVID-19 tests are sterilized with a chemical that's a carcinogen -- and therefore can expose you to it. That chemical? Ethylene Oxide. It's used for all types of medical instruments.
“It is a gas commonly used to sterilize about half of all the medical equipment that we use. Things like catheters and things like cotton swabs, things like dressings, and we use ethylene oxide because it does not damage types of material that would be damaged by heat or other materials. In addition, there are other things that many people use on a daily basis like cosmetics, that also use ethylene oxide as a gas to sterilize them,” Dr. Gastaldo explained. "Ethylene oxide is officially listed by federal agencies as a carcinogen and it's actually a potent neurotoxin. However, when we use it in products that have been sterilized, there's really nothing there that causes any kind of concern.”
"Anytime you get a medical procedure and their medic, there's medical equipment being used, you want it to be sterile, you don't want it to have bacteria or other pathogens in it. So when you're at the hospital, you often have instruments that have been sterilized with ethylene oxide, which is a gas. And yes, that gas is toxic if you're exposed to it as a gas form, but it's not something that you're exposed to when you are having some kind of instrumentation done to you that had been sterilized with ethylene oxide,” said Dr. Adalja.
"There should be no concern with causing cancer from using a COVID-19 swab, because it was sterilized with ethylene oxide,” said Dr. Shepherd.
Our sources say COVID-19 testing remains an important tool to get through this pandemic.
"Mask mandates are going to ebb and flow,” said Dr. Shepherd. “But testing will always be available."
Have something you'd like us to verify? Send us an email to verify@10TV.com.