
FDA urges consumers not use certain hand sanitizer products - bookofjoe
https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-updates-hand-sanitizers-consumers-should-not-use#products
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Wowfunhappy
My biggest concern when I read this—perhaps unnecessarily—is how do I know if
the sanitizer dispenser at $random_grocery_store is safe? A lot of stores
_require_ that you use those upon entry (for perfectly well-intentioned
reasons).

~~~
tyingq
Every one I've seen has the ingredients listed. Just avoid methanol. Ethanol
is the same alcohol you drink, so I would guess that's relatively safe.

I also imagine a store employee wouldn't balk at you using your own sanitizer
instead. Or even notice if you pretended to use it.

Edit: I missed the idea that these products have unintentional, and
undocumented, methanol in them. Note that some hand sanitizers intentionally
have methanol in them, and it's listed. Those, at least, are easy to avoid.

~~~
polalavik
Early warnings from the FDA said “in most cases methanol did not appear on the
product label”[1] or I remember reading something about methanol being
mislabeled as ethyl alcohol

[1] [https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-
announcements/coronavi...](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-
announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-reiterates-warning-about-
dangerous-alcohol-based-hand-sanitizers)

~~~
tyingq
Hmm. I suppose you could make your own with aloe vera and some everclear from
the liquor store.

~~~
Scoundreller
Is ever clear still available? I know people have had a hard time getting
rubbing alcohol. I’ve got a stockpile of rubbing alcohol, and been using it to
top off my hand sanitizer bottles.

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throwaway_pdp09
This seems curious. Methanol is toxic bit it's not novichok
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_toxicity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_toxicity)

"Methanol has a high toxicity in humans. As little as 10 mL of pure methanol
when drunk is metabolized into formic acid, which can cause permanent
blindness by destruction of the optic nerve. 15 mL is potentially fatal,[1]
although the median lethal dose is typically 100 mL (3.4 fl oz) (i.e. 1–2
mL/kg body weight of pure methanol[8]). Reference dose for methanol is 0.5
mg/kg/day.[9]"

I've been using methylated spirits (~10% methanol IIRC, rest ethanol) as a
hand sanitiser (on my hands, not as a flipping mouthwash) for months with no
problems and I'm going to dig around and check its skin permeability tomorrow,
but I wonder if the FDA is doing a bit of major just-in-case butt-covering
here.

Edit: some links

[https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/24036/methanol...](https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/24036/methanol-
skin-exposure-serious-or-not)

Quite long.

[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00378331](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00378331)

"Methanol absorption rate through the human skin has been examined by the use
of a modified direct method, and a value of 0.192 mg/cm2/min was determined."

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lemiffe
Most of them seem to be from Mexico, is this a comprehensive list? Or are most
of the sanitizers that are imported into the US produced in Mexico?

~~~
rsynnott
It's possible that there's common manufacturing involved, either of an
ingredient or the whole product. That's fairly common for this sort of rather
generic product, and can lead to extremely broad recalls. A while back, almost
all hummus in the UK and Ireland was recalled; turns out practically all
manufacturers shared one company in the supply chain.

~~~
Carioca
A lot of them were recalled for containing methanol, which could be a
characteristic of the original bulk alcohol. I'd imagine most plants are not
set up to do the necessary separation

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lazyeye
There is a business opportunity here for someone to sell test strips that
indicate the presence of methanol plus maybe some rough color indication (70+%
?) for ethanol.

Edit: This already exists for home distillers etc.

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dillonmckay
Didn’t the FDA waive some regulations regarding production in March?

~~~
dawnerd
That was more with the production of ethyl alcohol, not methanol.

~~~
vanattab
Methanol is a byproduct in the production ethyl alcohol and has to be removed.
The stories of people going blind drinking moonshine is do the methanol.

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bjelkeman-again
Are These bring sold in the US? Are there repercussions for people importing
or manufacturing them?

~~~
vikramkr
They mention that they are adding them to import alert in order to stop them
from being legally imported into the US

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aaron695
I remember drinking fridge cleaner with friends in college.

Had the producers lied about their product we'd have been badly hurt.

Had they changed the contents and we didn't carefully re-check every thing
we'd be badly hurt.

This is what we are fighting here.

It's not about getting it on your hands.

~~~
Camillo
> drinking fridge cleaner

> in college

I don't know if I should be inspired or horrified.

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taf2
Is there any easy diy way to test at home?

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Consultant32452
This site claims you may be able to test by scent and flame color. It's about
testing alcoholic beverages, not hand sanitizer though, so assess your risk
accordingly.

[https://sciencing.com/test-ethanol-
content-4598588.html](https://sciencing.com/test-ethanol-content-4598588.html)

~~~
hlieberman
I'm reallllly skeptical of their recommendations here, because of their two
solutions for testing for the presence of methanol, one won't work for
contaminated ethanol (which is what this is likely to be), and the other uses
a toxic heavy metal with inhalation risks.

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leeoniya
all but 1 are manufactured in Mexico, yet this is not directly stated in the
headline, nor the abstract.

curious.

~~~
untog
Why should it be?

If 90% of all sanitizers produced in Mexico were dangerous then it makes sense
to include it in the headline: that’s useful information for the reader. But
if it’s a tiny minority then knowing the country of origin doesn’t actually
help the reader make a choice in the store.

In any case, this isn’t a new article, it’s an FDA dataset. It isn’t supposed
to be editorialised.

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cbg0
Edit: apparently methanol is also absorbed through the skin through extensive
exposure, so it's safer to stay away from it.

~~~
aarongough
Methanol exposure through the skin can also cause a lot of issues:
[https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750...](https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750029.html)

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marcrosoft
Keep in mind this list contains subpotent products which are not dangerous to
use and should not be discarded or recalled, just mentioned that you didn’t
get the protection you were looking for.

~~~
surbas
This is a list of products that you should NOT use. They all have been
recalled by the FDA.

~~~
marcrosoft
Read the categories of products on the list!

~~~
frogpelt
Only two on the list of 101 products were listed as sub-potent.

You can search for methanol or sub-potent and see the categories.

