More Hand Sanitizer Recalled For “New Contaminant”

In case you've just been too darn busy to keep a rolling count yourself, we now have 165 hand sanitizers on the updated FDA list of toxic products. Some have already been recalled while others are being recommended for recalls.

When this whole COVID-19 pandemic got rolling, one of the hottest commodities on the market was hand sanitizer. There were runs on it at stores around the country, and that led to people hoarding the stuff either for their own personal use or to try to sell to others who hadn't stocked up quickly enough.

I'd even made fun of my wife (before the pandemic) when I discovered she'd purchased what I thought was enough to last us for a couple of years. I'm not making fun of her now.

Whenever a product reaches that level of demand, there are going to be those who want to cash in without actually providing a quality product. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a list of those people and their products.

The problems first came up when it was discovered that some manufacturers were using methanol instead of ethanol in their hand sanitizing products. While ethanol is safe for use as a hand sanitizer, methanol is not. Methanol can produce a toxic reaction when it's absorbed through your skin, or even worse, ingested.

Now, the FDA is finding some products that contain 1-propanol, which is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizer products marketed in the U.S. and can also be toxic and life-threatening when ingested.

How bad is 1-propanol?

1-propanol can cause central nervous system (CNS) depression, which can result in death. Symptoms of exposure can include confusion, decreased consciousness, and slowed pulse and breathing. The FDA says that young children are most at risk.

If you find that you have hand sanitizer with one of these dangerous ingredients, the FDA says you should not pour them down the drain or flush them. They should be placed in "appropriate hazardous waste containers."

Click here to read how to identify these products, and to see the full list of recalls.