Greetings!
Those of you who've been in over the last almost year of this pandemic have likely noticed that we, like every other facility out there, has units for people to sanitize their hands spread throughout the clinic.
What you may have also noticed, and possibly commented on as many did, is that I choose to use straight isopropyl alcohol instead of the hand gels despite the fact that it is a little messier and less convenient. My thinking at the time, being the ever cautious, some might say suspicious type, was that the lack of availability of sanitizers, followed by a plethora of hand sanitizer options mostly from new companies that had never made them before, was an indication that likely some of them couldn't be trusted. So we purchased liquid dispensers, reached out to all of our medical suppliers, and secured a supply of 70% isopropyl alcohol from companies that had been making it for a long time.
At the beginning there were a few instances here and there where various sanitizers were tested and found to contain methanol instead of the listed alcohol, which is toxic even through dermal exposure. Now a new alert from the FDA shows how bad the problem is-
"The FDA’s analyses of alcohol-based hand sanitizers imported from Mexico found 84% of the samples analyzed by the agency from April through December 2020 were not in compliance with the FDA’s regulations. More than half of the samples were found to contain toxic ingredients, including methanol and/or 1-propanol, at dangerous levels. The agency has posted and regularly updates a list of hand sanitizer products that consumers should not use, which include those that FDA has found to contain methanol and/or 1-propanol....
...the FDA is aware of adverse events, including blindness, cardiac effects, effects on the central nervous system and hospitalizations and death, primarily reported to poison control centers and state departments of health. Methanol exposure can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death. Although people using these products on their hands are at risk for methanol poisoning, young children who ingest these products and adolescents and adults who drink these products as an alcohol substitute are most at risk. "
If you have any product at home, I would get rid of it immediately. We keep alcohol prep pads in our car and jacket pockets so that when we're out and about we have an option when necessary other than what's provided at the store.
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