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
(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]