Hundreds of thousands of polluted syringes have found their way to Polish hospitals – the Dziennik daily reported Wednesday.

Insect remains and black dust were found on them. Such impurities may cause sepsis and eventually death. It is not known yet if someone has suffered as a result.

"An intravenous injection with a syringe like that could kill a patient", said professor Zbigniew Fijałek, director of the National Medicines Institute. "Syringes must be sterile, without any impurities whatsoever", he explained.

BD Discardit II syringes from the faulty 0607186 series were distributed among at least 150 receivers in Poland. Today, Drug Registration Bureau revealed that the producer of disposable syringes Becton Dickinson would recall them from the hospitals.

The infection inside the syringes was first spotted by a nurse in the ophthalmological ward of hospital in Radom in December 2006.

"At first I thought that it was paint from syringe markings", said Marzena Barwicka, head of Public Orders and Purchasing department at the hospital in Radom. "We’ve sent most of them back to the distributor, and a few to the prosecutor’s office for testing", she added.

It took prosecutor appointed experts more than six months to express an opinion, which is shocking: "fragments of insects, dark dust and lack of sterility found".

Through all that time neither the manufacturer, distributor, prosecutor nor Radom hospital had notified the pharmaceutical regulator and other hospitals.

The hospital in Radom has returned several thousand syringes to the distributor. Dziennik has found out they were from the 0607186, 06022444, 0603266 and 0607297 series, although other series could also be affected.