A 48-YEAR-OLD woman was electrocuted yesterday while using an electrical slimming device at a beauty parlour in the Nicosia suburb of Dhali.
Marianna Themistocleous, a mother of three, was electrocuted after the device seemingly malfunctioned, a post mortem confirmed.
The device did not bear the CE marking showing it had passed EU regulations, nor did it have a brand name or any other information showing where it was from.
It was described to the Cyprus Mail as a metallic box with wires sticking out which were connected to the body and administered an electrical current.
The police handed over the machine to the state’s department of electrical and mechanical services for further tests.
Speaking to CyBC yesterday, electromechanical services’ engineer, Andreas Louca said that police had indications that the device was imported from Greece, and revealed that there were other similar products in Cyprus and that they might have been bought in bulk.
Louca said that police had started to look for the other items and urged the public to avoid buying them but also to report any suspicious looking products adding that checks were on a sample basis so there can never be a complete guarantee that products on sale are safe.
“We should buy devices from reliable importers and manufacturers,” said Louca who clarified that regulations prohibited holding on to goods at customs for prolonged amount of times so that all products could be checked.
“It serves no purpose for us to buy devices which obviously do not conform (to standards), even if some have managed to distribute them in the market,” Louca said.
Andreas Evripidou is a head technician at an independent service which checks for the safety of imported products according to EU standards with respect to electromagnetic radiation. He said that they had conducted tests on three different slimming devices in the past three years, and had warned importers that they did not fulfil the safety criteria set by EU standards.
“While one of the importers took notice of our caution and cancelled the order, the other two went ahead with the purchase,” Evripidou said.
Evripidou did not rule out the possibility that Themistocleas’ use of a mobile phone at the time of her electrocution could have played a part in her death.
“Its exposure to the electromagnetic radiation from the mobile phone could have switched the setting of the particular device to a dangerous level, thus causing the electrocution,” said Evripidou.
