As reported poisonings from deficient hand sanitizer rise, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has expanded its list of alleged toxic sanitizers to avoid, raised a new alarm about a chemical to look out for, and warned that some products on the market lack the required germ/virus-killing potency to be effective.

The FDA’s list of sanitizers had grown to 163 entries as of press time. While many are produced at facilities in Mexico, the FDA recently called out sanitizers manufactured in the U.S., including: SkinGuard24 – All Day Hand Sanitizer from SG24 of Bolingbroke, GA;

• UltraCruz Hand Sanitizing Gel Antimicrobial from Santa Cruz Biotechnology of Texas.
• Volu-Sol Handrub Sanitizing Solution from Volu-Sol Inc. in Utah.
• Always Be Clean Hand Sanitizer and Just Hand Sanitizer Single Use Packs by Open Book Extracts in North Carolina.
• Lite ’n Foamy Lemon Blossom Hand Sanitizer and foamyiQ Lemon Blossom Hand Sanitizer from Spartan Chemical Co. Inc. in Ohio.

Earlier this year, the FDA told consumers to avoid sanitizer that contains methanol, which can be toxic. Products may not be labeled as containing methanol but might still have it.

The FDA is also now cautioning consumers to avoid sanitizers that are labeled to contain ethanol or isopropyl alcohol/isopropanol (which are safe at the correct levels), but have tested positive for 1-propanol, which can be toxic and life-threatening.

Through the third week of July, a CBS report detailed, 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 sanitizer, compared to the same period last year. Almost 12,000 of those cases involved children ages 5 and younger.

Meanwhile, sanitizers must contain a minimum of 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol (different than 1-propanol) to work and be safe for human use, according to the CDC.

The full FDA list can be found at bit.ly/FDASanitizerList –

Source: Advantages Magazine, an ASI publication, October, 2020