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posted by
martyb
on Wednesday July 08 2020, @01:42AM
from the friends-don't-let-friends-drink-hand-sanitizers dept.
from the friends-don't-let-friends-drink-hand-sanitizers dept.
Adults and children in the United States have been blinded, hospitalized, and, in some cases, even died after drinking hand sanitizers contaminated with the extremely toxic alcohol methanol, the Food and Drug Administration reports.
In an updated safety warning, the agency identified five more brands of hand sanitizer that contain methanol, a simple alcohol often linked to incorrectly distilled liquor that is poisonous if ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin.
[...]
The newly identified products are as follows:
- Hand sanitizer Gel Unscented 70% Alcohol, made by Grupo Insoma, S.A.P.I de CV (Mexico)
- Mystic Shield Protection hand sanitizer, made by Transliquid Technologies (Mexico)
- Berish Hand Sanitizer Gel Fragrance Free, made by Soluciones Cosmeticas SA de CV (Mexico)
- Antiseptic Alcohol 70% Topical Solution hand sanitizer, made by Soluciones Cosmeticas SA de CV (Mexico)
- Britz Hand Sanitizer Ethyl Alcohol 70%, made by Tropicosmeticos SA de CV (Mexico)
The full list of product codes can be found here.
Previously:
(2020-06-23) Toxic Methanol that Causes Blindness Found in Hand Sanitizers, FDA Warns
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Toxic Hand Sanitizers Have Blinded and Killed Adults and Children, FDA Warns
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BEWARE! People acting under the influence of human nature.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @04:31AM (11 children)
I believe, depending on what state you live in, ethanol alcohol has to be 'denatured' meaning it needs to have some additives in order to make it undesirable to drink, or else it's subject to a hefty alcohol tax.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @06:39AM (9 children)
I know about denatured alcohol, and I was thinking that and did some research but could not find anything definitive. Generally if I venture an opinion or state something I'm not sure about, someone here will 1) verbally accost me, and 2) downmod me. I don't know why some people think every comment here (or /.) must be absolute universal truth. (that's supposed to be heard in a loud, deep, reverberant voice).
Anyway, I actually have some "rubbing" alcohol that is 70% ethyl. I have no idea if it's "denatured"- it doesn't say, but it says something about "if taken internally, severe gastric disturbances will result". I also have a gallon of denatured, and they smell quite similar. I don't have any pure grain to compare it to, but I should get some (makes a great cleaning solvent).
What I found in researching it a bit is that there are several ways to "denature" alcohol, and part of the goal is to make it smell bad or funky to hopefully discourage drinking it (because it's been made poisonous, and I also remember all of that from college chem lab.)
Interestingly, methanol is one of the additives used to "denature" ethanol.
My can of denatured does NOT give any ingredients. I'm not in CA and I wonder if they require more thorough ingredients list.
Easily found on web: "non-lethal dose, as little as 10ml of methanol will permanently destroy optic nerve" -> blindness.
There was a "House, MD" episode where a dude drank some methanol and I forget what House did to counteract it. From a summary wiki:
So he gave him ethanol (IV, or rum, or something, I forget.)
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday July 08 2020, @01:23PM (2 children)
Odd, I'm not sure if I've ever seen ethanol used in rubbing alcohol, it's almost always isopropyl diluted with water. If it says severe gastric disturbances will occur though, then it's probably a safe bet that it's denatured - ethanol on its own shouldn't do that.
If you're curious about the contents of denatured alcohol, I've had good luck looking up the MDS safety sheets for the specific brand - not really consumer-facing, but I guess maybe they need a record as an industrial chemical? As I recall, for the brand I use as camp stove fuel it was denatured with methanol and rubber solvents.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:24PM
Yes, it is odd and it's the only ethyl rubbing alcohol bottle I've ever seen. It's quite old- could be 30 years or more. It's plastic, looks pretty much like any you'd find in stores now, but says "ethyl 70%" right on the label, and not much else interesting...
Except in _very_ tiny print: "NDC 0426-0126-16"
A very brief search turned up nothing, and no time for more searching...
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:27PM
BTW, the bottle referred to is brand "Treasury", which was "Thrift Drug's" store brand, and they went out of business 1997. I'm sure this bottle is a good bit older than that. The good old days!! :)
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday July 08 2020, @01:50PM (5 children)
Rubbing alcohol is usually isopropyl [wikipedia.org] - one more carbon than ethanol and the position of the OH group is not on the end of the carbon chain. When metabolized, it results in acetone (a ketone), less toxic than the acetaldehide [wikipedia.org] resulted from the oxidation of ethanol.
Bottom line - the rubbing alcohol is metabolized faster (less buzz than the ethanol booze) and safer - may not need denaturating.
Depends. In Australia, there is actually no methanol in the "methylated spirits" [bunnings.com.au] exactly because the potential of accidental intoxications. Here, the technical spirits is a "technical grade ethanol - 95% purity" and the denaturation is done by adding a small quantity of the most powerful bitter agent known to humans [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:15PM (1 child)
Thanks for the chem lesson! I studied a little and am moderately savvy. I'd never heard of "denatonium". Very interesting. Sounds like fun at parties! :)
Yes, here in US it's usualllyl isopropyl. But yeah, this one bottle is ethyl, says so. It's an older bottle- not sure how old but could be 30 years, maybe that was more common back then. Again, it smells exactly like my can of denatured, and I have a pretty good smeller.
That's awesome that you (all) don't poison the alcohol. It's inspiring in me a 2,000 word essay (babbling) on the US, govt., power and control, who has it and loves it too much, etc. I'm thinking of the alcohol "prohibition" of the 1920s and all the violence it caused, just like the "drug wars" still raging in the US. They'd rather make it poisonous and tough crap to the people who end up drinking it, no matter how accidentally even if it's a child.
Thanks again for the info- you're a great educator!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @04:32PM
Also about Acetone toxicity
"Acetone can be found as an ingredient in a variety of consumer products ranging from cosmetics to processed and unprocessed foods. Acetone has been rated as a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substance when present in beverages, baked foods, desserts, and preserves at concentrations ranging from 5 to 8 mg/L.[58]
Acetone is however an irritant, causing mild skin irritation and moderate to severe eye irritation. At high vapor concentrations, it may depress the central nervous system like many other solvents.[59] In one documented case, ingestion of a substantial amount of acetone led to systemic toxicity, although the patient eventually fully recovered.[citation needed] Some sources estimate LD50 for human ingestion at 0.621 g/kg.[citation needed] Acute toxicity for mice by ingestion (LD50) is 3 g/kg, and by inhalation (LC50) is 44 g/m3 over 4 hours."
Those concentrations are much lower than those of ethanol
Also about the denaturing of ethanol
"Pure ethanol and alcoholic beverages are heavily taxed as psychoactive drugs, but ethanol has many uses that do not involve its consumption. To relieve the tax burden on these uses, most jurisdictions waive the tax when an agent has been added to the ethanol to render it unfit to drink. These include bittering agents such as denatonium benzoate and toxins such as methanol, naphtha, and pyridine. Products of this kind are called denatured alcohol.[99][100]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @04:19PM (1 child)
I've never heard that isopropyl alcohol is safer than ethyl alcohol and I thought I remember it being way more dangerous so I looked it up. I found various websites that basically say it's not safer. Here is one source.
"Consuming even small amounts of rubbing alcohol, or isopropyl alcohol, can make a person very ill. Isopropyl alcohol is twice as toxic as ethanol, the form of alcohol contained in alcoholic beverages, and drinking it can result in severe depression of the central nervous system, internal bleeding and even death. "
https://www.drugrehab.com/addiction/alcohol/drinking-rubbing-alcohol/ [drugrehab.com]
Here is another source
"Isopropyl alcohol is also extremely irritating to the digestive tract. Drinking a lot of it can cause vomiting, diarrhea, pain, and bleeding in the stomach and intestines. This can lead to dehydration, low blood pressure, shock, and coma."
https://www.poison.org/articles/2012-dec/rubbing-alcohol-only-looks-like-water [poison.org]
I post this because I don't want someone reading your post and drinking this stuff. Please do not.
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Thursday July 09 2020, @12:26PM
Which it is, as methanol is a mass killer even in small concentrations. (At least here in eastern europe.)
If those with poor reading comprehension drink stuff and die, then the average reading comprehension level will rise - that's a good thing.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @04:22PM
Even your own Wikipedia link says
"Isopropyl alcohol forms an azeotrope with water, which gives a boiling point of 80.37 °C (176.67 °F) and a composition of 87.7 wt% (91 vol%) isopropyl alcohol. Water-isopropyl alcohol mixtures have depressed melting points.[10] It has a slightly bitter taste, and is not safe to drink."
Enough said. Do not drink this stuff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @11:28AM
Ah yes, Bitrex and it's pals....
Funny thing about Bitrex, some people can't taste it, and some of us quite like bitter tastes...
Denatured?, preab san ól