FDA says these hand sanitizers won’t protect you against COVID-19
FDA says these hand sanitizers won’t protect you against COVID-19
Hand sanitizers became a hot item in stores after COVID-19 reached the leading all to buy the product as a way to help thwart contracting the novel coronavirus. In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began identifying a few hand sanitizers that had toxic chemicals.
What began with nine products in June has grown to more than 200 hand sanitizing products by Labor Day Weekend. It started with products made and distributed from Mexico to products both made and distributed here in the states.
The chief reason for recall is the presence of methanol (wood alcohol), or 1-propanol. The FDA has now listed more than 200 hand sanitizers on its "do-not-use" list.
The FDA has stated it will continually look into products to ensure safety for those who purchase and use them.
CBS News) - For months, the Food and Drug Administration has been urging U.S. consumers to avoid a growing list of hand sanitizers that may contain toxic substances. Now the agency is warning of another problem: Some brands may not be strong enough to kill the coronavirus.
To work, sanitizers must have a sufficient amount of at least one of two kinds of alcohol. They have to have be at least 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those levels are also safe on human skin.
According to the FDA, the following sanitizer products are "sub-potent," meaning they lack enough of the active ingredients that protect people from infection:
Worse, some of those sanitizers also contain methanol, which is used to make fuel and is dangerous when absorbed through the skin, inhaled or ingested.
The lack of potency is one of the reasons the FDA’s list of sanitizers that people should avoid expanded this week to about 100 brands and nearly 150 varieties. The list includes sanitizers made without enough ethanol, isopropanol or another active ingredient to be effective, consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG noted.
Most recently, the federal agency on Wednesday alerted consumers to four types of sanitizer made by Mexico's Harmonic Nature after finding it contained 1-propanol, a toxin that can damage the nervous system and even cause death if absorbed through the skin, consumed or come into contact with a person's eyes.
The FDA in mid-June issued public health alerts about hand sanitizers contaminated with methanol, after a rash of illnesses and four deaths in the U.S. were believed to be connected to toxic hand sanitizers.
While most of the problematic brands were made in Mexico, additions to the FDA's list this week included Leafree Instant Hand Sanitizer from China, with the product labeled "edible alcohol." The agency also flagged some sanitizers made in North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
While public health experts say hand sanitizer is generally an adequate substitute for hand washing to protect against COVID-19, the growing use of disinfectant products has led to a spike in accidental poisoning, especially among children.
Through the third week of July, there had been a 59% spike in calls — more than 18,000 cases — to one of the 55 poison control centers around the U.S. due to various incidents involving hand sanitizer, compared to the same period last year, according to data from the National Poison Data System. Nearly 12,000 of those cases involved kids ages 5 and younger.
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