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Recently, potentially dangerous contaminants have been discovered in some hand sanitizers. In June 2020, the FDA announced that some popular hand sanitizers are contaminated with methanol (methyl alcohol). This news has prompted health care providers to be more cautious. Methanol has a much narrower range of safety compared to ethanol and isopropanol. Too much methanol can cause permanent blindness and death secondary to severe changes in body chemistry that happen as our bodies metabolize it.
Some doctors say it’s fine to use hand sanitizers on babies, while other doctors disagree, saying it’s not safe. You can ask your pediatrician to weigh in on your baby’s usage of it since they know your baby’s health history. Or, you can opt to skip it for your baby and focus on handwashing only. As guardians and parents, it’s within our natural instinct to keep our kids protected always, whether they’re right by our side, a foot away, or as far as a thousand miles away. But with the novel coronavirus still out there and kids returning to school, there’s only so much we can do. However, by taking the right precautions such as choosing an alcohol-free hand sanitiser , disinfecting their stationery sets, and providing them with a good nose mask. Alcohol-based sanitisers are composed of ethanol or isopropyl, distilled water, octenidine dihydrochloride and phenoxyethanol. 5 Some sanitisers may be composed slightly differently with ethanol and isopropyl and aminomethyl propanol. 6 The concentrations of ethanol vary with different companies. Some may contain 60% – 95% alcohol, whilst many contain 70%. 6 RELATED: Stop Using These Hand Sanitizers Immediately, Says FDA Keep Products Like Hand Sanitizer Out of Reach Dispense and supervise the application of hand sanitizer until you can be sure your child will not:It’s easy to leave potentially dangerous traces of ingredients, or the final product, around your home when you’re mixing it up. This makes it easier for the homemade hand sanitizer to be ingested. It is safe for you to apply sanitizer to your child’s hands, but do not allow them to use these products unsupervised until they are responsible enough to do so correctly. Some people abuse hand sanitizer to try to become intoxicated or drunk. If someone you know is abusing hand sanitizer, get help. While it is never safe to intentionally drink hand sanitizer, if a person is abusing a contaminated hand sanitizer, this behavior could be deadly.
From a germ standpoint, hand sanitizers are not as effective as regular soap because they do not affect the virus’s outer layer as much. When soap and water are not available, using a hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol is the next best thing (3).In March 2021, a contaminant called benzene was detected in several hand sanitizer brands across multiple production batches. Benzene is a chemical known to cause leukemia. These reagents are 100% effective in killing the coronavirus but are toxic and may lead to serious complications and sometimes death if ingested. 3 The regular use of ethanol-based sanitisers has shown to be harsh on the skin, resulting in skin irritation on the hands. 6 However, Kramer et al. reported that the regular use of ethanol has no side effects on the skin and that it was safe to use in adults, and this was based on their findings that showed that the concentration of alcohol absorbed through skin is less than the toxic level for humans. 9 Remember, the products that are contaminated with methanol or benzene are much more dangerous than those made with approved hand sanitizer ingredients. Smaller quantities need to be ingested before they can cause serious, sometimes permanent health effects and even death. Methanol or benzene will not be listed as an ingredient. If someone ingests one of the recalled products (see this list) get help right away. Don’t wait until symptoms develop as they could become permanent!Get help online with web POISONCONTROL ®or call 1-800-222-1222. But not to worry, there are several other effective and safe hand sanitisers you can get for your kids without putting them at risk. Let’s show you how to select the safest options.
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