For months, the Food and Drug Administration has urged U.S. consumers to avoid a growing list of hand sanitizers may contain toxic substances. Now the agency warns 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 types of alcohol. They must 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 “subpotent”, meaning they do not have enough of the active ingredients that protect people from infection:
- Antiseptics against alcohol 62% Sanitizer for hands (Quimica Magna de Mexico)
- Bernal (Quimica Magna)
- Datsen (Quimica Magna)
- Derma70 Hand Sanitizer (Asiaticon)
- Clean Humans (DEPQ Internacional)
- CleanCare NoGerm (Precision Analytics Integral)
- Dgreen (DEPQ Internaciona)
- Hand Sanitizer (DEPQ Internacional)
- HF&N (Healthy Food and Nutrition Lab)
- Medically Minded (Asiaticon)
- NeoNatural (Limpo Quimicos)
- OZO (Estrategia Hospitalaria)
- Protz Real Protection Antibacterial (Asiaticon)
- UltraCruz (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Texas)
- V-KLEAN (Asiaticon)
- Yakana (Grupo Yakana)
Worse, some of these sanitizers also contain methanol, which is used to make fuel and is dangerous when absorbed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin.
The lack of potential is one of the reasons the FDA’s list of sanitizers that people should avoid this week should expand to about 100 brands and nearly 150 varieties. The list includes sanitizers made without enough ethanol, isopropanol or any other active ingredient to be effective, states US-PIRG consumer group.
Most recent was the federal agency on Wednesday consumers warned of four types of sanitizer created by the Harmonic Nature of Mexico after finding the contained 1-propanol, a toxin that can damage the nervous system and even cause death if absorbed through the skin, consumed when in contact with a person’s eyes.
In mid-June, the FDA issued public health warnings about hand sanitizers contaminated with methanol, following an outbreak of disease and four deaths in the US were believed to be linked to toxic hand sanitizers.
While most of the problematic brands in Mexico were made, supplements to the FDA’s list this week added Leafree Instant Hand Sanitizer from China, with the product named “edible alcohol.” The agency also highlighted some sanitizers made in North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
While public health experts say hand sanitizer is generally an adequate replacement for hand washing to protect against COVID-19, the increasing use of disinfectant products has led to a spike in accidental poisoning, especially among children.
By the third week of July, there was a 59% increase in calls – more than 18,000 cases – to one of the 55 poisoning centers around the US due to several incidents involving sanitizers, compared to the same period last year, according to data from the National Poison Data System. Approximately 12,000 of those cases were children aged 5 and younger.
The FDA advises against using the following sanitizers by hand, as they can be toxic:
- Antiseptic alcohol 75% topical (Harmonious nature)
- Antiseptic alcohol 80% topical (Botanicals Internacional)
- All-Clean Hand Sanitizer (EskBiochem)
- All Clear Hand Sanitizer (Botanicals Internacional)
- Always be clean (open book extracts, North Carolina)
- AMX Instant Hand Sanitizer (Mexico High Media Group News)
- Andy’s (Limpo Quimicos)
- Andy’s Best (Limpo Quimicos)
- Antiseptic alcohol 70% topical solution with hand sanitizer (Soluciones Cosmeticas)
- Anti-Bac Hand Sanitizer (Echte Clean Distribuciones)
- Assured (4E Global)
- Assured (Albek de Mexico)
- Be Safe (Tropicosmeticos)
- Bersih (Cosmetic Solutions)
- Bio AAA Advance (AAA Cosmetics)
- Blumen (4E Global SAPI CV)
- Born Basic (Real Clean Distribuciones)
- Britz (Tropicosmeticos)
- BV BYE Virus (Plastico Las Palmas)
- Cavalry (Real Clean Distribuciones)
- CleanCare NoGerm (Eskbiochem)
- Cleaner Hand (Tropicosmeticos)
- Command Gel (Roque Plast)
- DAESI hand sanitizer (Yara Elena De La Garza Perez Nieto)
- Earths Facilities (DDI Multinacional)
- Enliven (Real Clean Distribuciones)
- Esk Biochem (Eskbiochem)
- Foamy iQ (Spartan Chemical)
- GelBac (Incredible Products)
- Good gel (Eskbiochem)
- Green fr o (Notarika)
- Greenfrut Sanitary Wipes (Notarika)
- Hand Sanitizer (Grupo Insoma)
- Hand Sanitizer (Grupo Plast Y Kosas)
- Hand Sanitizer (amazing products)
- Hand Sanitizer (MXL Commercial)
- Hand Sanitizer (Real Clean)
- Handsanisearder (Soluciones Cosmeticas)
- Hand Sanitizer Agavespa Skincare (DDI Multinacional)
- Hand Sanitizer Disinfectant Gel (Resource Recovery & Trading)
- Handzer (Tropicosmeticos)
- Hello Kitty (4E Global)
- Herbacil (Broncolin)
- Honeykeeper (4E Global)
- In good hands (Plastico Las Palmas)
- Inatek (Botanicals Internacional)
- Incredible Products (Pacific Coast)
- Jalisco (Plast Plast)
- Jaloma (Jaloma Laboratories)
- Just Hand Sanitizer Disposable Packs (Extra Book Extracts, North Carolina)
- Ready a Danver (4E Global)
- Kleanz (Tropicosmeticos)
- Lavar (Eskbiochem)
- Leafree (Yangzhou Olande Cosmetic)
- Leiper’s (Leiper’s Fork Distillery, Tennessee)
- Lite’n Foamy by Roque Plast (Spartan Chemical Co Inc., Ohio)
- LumiSkin (AAA Cosmetica)
- Lux Eoi (Real Clean Distribuciones)
- M Hand Sanitizer (Grupo Plast)
- Medical Mary Clean (Noticias Mexico Hoy Grupo)
- Modesa (Albek de Mexico)
- Mystic Shield Protection (Mystic International)
- NEXT (Albek de Mexico)
- NuuxSan (Albek de Mexico)
- OK Apotheek (Grupo Plast)
- Optimus (Liqesa Exportacion)
- OZO (Ismar Dynamic Solutions)
- Parabola (Tropicosmeticos)
- Plus Advanced (Limpo Quimicos)
- Purity (Cosmetic Solutions)
- QualitaMed (AAA Cosmetics
- ResQue 1st (Botanicals Internacional)
- Saniderm (Eskbiochem)
- Sayab (JG Atlas Comercios)
- Scent Theory – Keep It Clean (Real Clean Distribuciones)
- Selecto (Maquiladora Miniara)
- 70% Sanitizer for alcohol gel (Botanicals Internacional)
- Shine and Clean Hand Sanitizer (Maquiladora Miniara)
- SkinGuard24 All-Day (SG24 LLC, Georgia)
- Total Pure (International Botanicals)
- TriCleanz (Tritanium Labs USA LLC, Illinois)
- TriCleanz (Incredible Products)
- Urban bath and body (Tropicosmeticos)
- Vidanos Easy Cleaning (DDI Multinacional)
- Volu-Sol (Volu-Sol, Inc., Utah)
- Wave (Tropicosmeticos)
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