Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/x6UdHmyLJ8I   With the proliferation of home CoVid testing and the availability of free test kits provided by the federal government, a spate of accidents reported to the FDA demonstrate inherent dangers from the chemicals within these test kits.  Here’s what you need to know.   The liquid reagents in the kits, including sodium azide, can be toxic if ingested or if they touch the skin or get into the eyes.  The small vials are similar to those containing eye drops, and some have mistakenly placed the test chemicals in their eyes with disastrous results.  In other cases, children have opened kits and touched or swallowed the liquids.   Here are the precautions that you should take with the kits. Keep the kits away from children and pets. Leave all kit components in the box until ready for use. Follow all instructions, use only the provided swab and not your own Qtips, and don’t touch the swabs to any test liquids until you have sampled your nasal or mouth secretions. Don’t touch o