Man's Death Linked to Cotton Swab Use

by Rob Walker | February 6, 2008 at 07:46 am

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As an avid fan of q-tips (technically called cotton swabs), this was an especially disturbing story. A montreal man is dead after perforating his eardrum with a cotton swab, which caused an infection from his outer ear to migrate to his inner ear and brain. He died of meningitis last year.

A Quebec coroner is calling for stricter product warnings from Health Canada after linking the death of a Montreal man to his use of cotton ear swabs.
Daniel St-Pierre, 43, died from meningitis last year after an infection from his outer ear migrated through his perforated eardrum and killed him, the coroner concluded.
Mr. St-Pierre had been a frequent user of cotton swabs, which probably ended up giving him an ear infection through overuse and repeated rubbing, coroner Jacques Ramsay said.
He then used a swab "with maybe a little more vigour than usual," which perforated his eardrum, letting the outer ear's infection travel into his inner ear, the coroner said.