The world was at a standstill after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic. No one knew that this was a disease that would last and even affect a lot of the macroeconomic sectors. Unique organizations and associations came together to help the world fight this pandemic. The WHO also advised people on how to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Using hand sanitizers was among the pieces of advice the WHO urged people to do.
Since most economic activities had halted because of the pandemic, new companies emerged to help in the production of hand sanitizers. Unfortunately, some of these companies are using methanol as part of the composition of their products. Methanol is a harmful chemical that people should avoid consuming in products. Alcohol is a better product to use in a hand sanitizer. The United States FDA has strongly warned against the use of these methanols-based hand sanitizers.
What is Methanol?
Methanol is a light, volatile, and flammable liquid chemical that has a smell similar to that of ethanol. It has small acute toxicity in human beings. A negligible amount of pure methanol can cause blindness. Over 10 ml is fatal. The chemical is poisonous in 2 ways. 1st it may be dangerous because of effects on the CNS acting as a CNS depressant. Second, it is processed to formic acid through formaldehyde in a procedure. The enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver starts the process.
What is Hand Sanitizers?
A hand sanitizer is a liquid that people used to reduce infectious agents in the hands of a person. It is less effective at destroying other kinds of germs such as the norovirus. Alcohol-based sanitizers have isopropyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol with versions having over 60% of alcohol as the best. There are also non-alcohol-based sanitizers that have benzalkonium chloride. However, they are not the best compared to the alcohol-based versions.
The US Foods and Drug Administration and Methanol-Based Sanitizers
The FDA is a federal agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services. It is accountable for promoting and protecting public health via the control of food safety, tobacco products, and others.
Recently, the FDA increased its list of harmful hand sanitizer products including the earlier ones that it had mentioned. It strongly discourages the Mexican firm against selling hand sanitizers that have the methanol chemical. The manufactures dealing in these harmful sanitizers are the 4E Global and SAPI de CV. The Blumen label is the name of the product they are dealing with,
The FDA strongly warns consumers against the use of these hand sanitizers.
Dr. Stephen Hahn On Methanol Sanitizers
He is the FDA Commissioner. Dr. Stephen urges consumers to be watchful on the hand sanitizers they are using. He advises them to halt consuming hand sanitizers on the FDA’s list of harmful products.
He says:
“Consumers must also be vigilant about which hand sanitizers they use. For their health and safety, we urge consumers to stop using all hand sanitizers on the FDA’s list of dangerous hand sanitizer products.”
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