AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch health technology company Philips on Wednesday said independent tests on its respiratory devices involved in a major global recall had shown positive results.
The company issued the recall of millions of breathing devices and ventilators in June last year because foam used to dampen noise from the devices might degrade and become toxic, carrying potential cancer risks.
Philips said that the latest tests indicated that exposure to particulate matter emissions from degraded foam in DreamStation devices was “unlikely to result in an appreciable harm to health in patients” provided the machines had not been treated with ozone-based cleansing products.
The company said results also showed that exposure to volatile organic compound emissions was not expected to result in long-term health consequences for patients.
The test and research programme has been conducted with five independent, certified testing laboratories and the results have been reviewed and assessed by third-party qualified experts and Philips Respironics, as well as an external medical panel, the company said.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by David Goodman)
