The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has added five hand sanitizers to its list of products that have tested positive for a toxic chemical.
These additional hand sanitizer products tested positive for methanol, which is a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through skin or ingested.
The FDA’s discovery comes just two weeks after the agency advised consumers not to use nine hand sanitizers manufactured by the Mexican company Eskbiochem SA, because samples had tested positive for methanol.
Exposure to significant amounts of methanol can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death.
Anyone exposed to these hand sanitizers should seek immediate treatment, the FDA warns.
The five hand sanitizers added to the FDA’s list are:
- Grupo Insoma’s Hand Sanitizer Gel Unscented, 70% alcohol
- Transliquid Technologies’ Mystic Shield Protection Hand Sanitizer
- Soluciones Cosmeticas’ Bersih Hand Sanitizer Gel Fragrance Free
- Soluciones Cosmeticas Antiseptic Alcohol 70% Topical Solution Hand Sanitizer
- Tropicosmeticos’ Britz Hand Sanitizer Ethyl Alcohol 70%
These have all been manufactured in Mexico as well.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that proper hand hygiene is an effective response to COVID-19, and the agency recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol.
