Certain sanitizers are being pulled from the market for containing industrial-grade ethanol
Health Canada has issued a wide recall list for hand sanitizers on the market that contain industrial-grade ethanol.
Some of the chemicals found in the ethanol being used have not been approved for use in hand sanitizers in Canada, Health Canada warned in a safety alert first published on June 6. “Industrial-grade ethanol contains impurities that are not found in the type of ethanol approved for use in manufacturing hand sanitizers,” the alert reads.
Among the 13 products on the list are Eltraderm Hand Sanitizer, Gel 700 Hand Sanitizer, Sanilabs Hand Sanitizer, and Walker Emulsions Hand Sanitizer. The entire recall list can be found here.
The department says the products can cause dry or cracked skin and irritation and advises Canadians to contact Health Canada if they experience any adverse effects from their use, consult their doctor if they have concerns, and return the products to the pharmacy for proper disposal.
According the safety alert, “Health Canada has directed companies to stop the sale of these products and is monitoring the effectiveness of the recalls.”
You can find a list of approved hand sanitizers on Health Canada’s website here.
UPDATE: Sanitizer will not burst into flame in your car.
We reported in a recent post (which we have deleted) that hand sanitizer left in a hot car could burst into flames. Fact-checking has proved that part of our report article to be untrue, though as we reported, it’s still unwise to leave sanitizer in a hot car for long periods because doing so can decrease the shelf life of the product.
The idea that sanitizer might self-combust spread quickly after it appeared in a post from the Western Lakes Fire Department in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. However, further research showed that the temperature inside a car would to reach 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit) to cause sanitizer to combust. A study conducted by researchers at Arizona State University found that the internal temperatures of cars reach only about 70 degrees Celsius, or about 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Photo: Unsplash/Kelly Sikkema.
