Article by insider@insider.com (Julia Naftulin)
© Crystal Cox/Business Insider Crystal Cox/Business Insider
- Since June 19, the FDA has been warning consumers of dangerous hand sanitizers that contain the fatal chemical methanol. Methanol is a type of alcohol that can be deadly if ingested or absorbed through the skin.
- The FDA found some hand sanitizer producers putting it into their products. In some cases, methanol wasn’t a listed ingredient.
- Here are all of the hand sanitizers the FDA has warned consumers of so far due to their methanol or potential methanol content.
Since June 19, the FDA has been building a list of hand sanitizers that they say could contain the deadly chemical methanol.
As hand sanitizer production increased during the pandemic, more companies pivoted to producing the high-demand product. Ethanol and isopropyl alcohol, the two types of alcohol commonly found in sanitizers and the ingredients that make them effective at killing germs, were in short supply.
That’s why the FDA believes some producers starting swapping in methanol, another type of alcohol, and an ingredient used to produce antifreeze and fuel.
Unlike ethanol and isopropyl alcohol, methanol can be deadly when inhaled or absorbed into the bloodstream through your skin. In the United States, any product that contains more than 4% methanol must be labeled as “poison.”
That’s why health officials flagged nine methanol-containing hand sanitizers that all came from one producer in Mexico. In many cases, these products listed ethanol as the effective ingredient, but once the FDA tested them, they were found to contain methanol.
But since then, more dangerous hand sanitizers have emerged, and the FDA said it will continue to flag these products to consumers.
Here are all of the hand sanitizers the FDA has warned against so far:
Click the above link to see all dangerous hand sanitizers.
