If you’re like a lot of Americans worried about exposure to coronavirus, shortages of your favorite hand sanitizers may have you purchasing brands you’d never heard of but which promised the same bacteria-killing agents. The Food and Drug Administration has recalled 75 brands that contain methanol, which can cause serious health complications.
The agency said anyone who used hand sanitizers containing methanol, which is also known as wood alcohol, should immediately seek medical treatment to reverse the toxic effects of methanol poisoning.
Substantial methanol exposure can result in “nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death,” the FDA said on its website.
All people who used the product on their hands are at risk, the FDA said. But the agency cautioned that “young children who accidentally ingest these products and adolescents and adults who drink these products as an alcohol (ethanol) substitute are most at risk for methanol poisoning.”
The 75 FDA-recalled hand sanitizers, on a list that has been frequently updated, are:
- 4E Global’s Blumen Clear Advanced Hand Sanitizer (70 percent alcohol)
- 4E Global’s Blumen Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer Clear Ethyl Alcohol (70 percent alcohol)
- 4E Global’s Blumen Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer Clear
- 4E Global’s KLAR Instant Hand Sanitizer labeled as Greenbrier International Inc.
- 4E Global’s DANVER Instant Hand Sanitizer labeled as Greenbrier International Inc.
- 4E Global’s Modesa Instant Hand Sanitizer Moisturizers and Vitamin E
- 4E Global’s Blumen Advanced Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s Blumen Advanced Hand Sanitizer Aloe
- 4E Global’s Blumen Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer Lavender
- 4E Global’s Blumen Clear Lear Advanced Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s Blumen Clear Advanced Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s The Honeykeeper Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s Blumen Advanced Hand Sanitizer Clear
- 4E Global’s Blumen Clear Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s Blumen Clear Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer Aloe
- 4E Global’s Blumen Clear Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer Lavender
- 4E Global’s Blumen Aloe Advanced Hand Sanitizer, with 70 percent alcohol
- 4E Global’s Blumen Advanced Hand Sanitizer Lavender, with 70 percent alcohol
- 4E Global’s Blumen Advanced Hand Sanitizer Aloe, with 70 percent alcohol
- 4E Global’s Blumen Antibacterial Fresh Citrus Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s Blumen Hand Sanitizer Fresh Citrus
- 4E Global’s Klar Instant Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s Danver Instant Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s Hello Kitty by Sanrio Hand Sanitizer
- 4E Global’s Assured Instant Hand Sanitizer (Vitamin E and Aloe)
- 4E Global’s Assured Instant Hand Sanitizer (Aloe and Moisturizers)
- 4E Global’s Assured Instant Hand Sanitizer Vitamin E and Aloe
- 4E Global’s Assured Instant Hand Sanitizer Aloe and Moisturizers
- 4E Global’s Blumen Instant Hand Sanitizer Fragrance-Free
- 4E Global’s Blumen Instant Hand Sanitizer Aloe Vera
- 4E Global’s Assured Aloe
- AAA Cosmetica’s bio aaa Advance Hand Sanitizer
- AAA Cosmetica’s LumiSkin Advance Hand Sanitizer (multiple sizes)
- AAA Cosmetica’s QualitaMed Hand Sanitizer
- DDI Multinacional’s Earths Amenities Instant Unscented Hand Sanitizer with Aloe Vera Advanced
- DDI Multinacional’s Hand Sanitizer Agavespa Skincare
- DDI Multinacional’s Vidanos Easy Cleaning Rentals Hand Sanitizer Agavespa Skincare
- Eskbiochem’s All-Clean Hand Sanitizer
- Eskbiochem’s Esk Biochem Hand Sanitizer
- Eskbiochem’s Lavar 70 Gel Hand Sanitizer
- Eskbiochem’s The Good Gel Antibacterial Gel Hand Sanitizer
- Eskbiochem’s CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer, with 80 percent alcohol
- Eskbiochem’s CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer, with 75 percent alcohol
- Eskbiochem’s Saniderm Advanced Hand Sanitizer
- Grupo Insoma’s Hand sanitizer Gel Unscented, with 70 percent alcohol
- Limpo Quimicos’ Andy’s Best
- Limpo Quimicos’ Andy’s
- Limpo Quimicos’ Gelclor
- Limpo Quimicos’ NeoNatural
- Limpo Quimicos’ Plus Advanced
- Liqesa Exportacion (Liq-E-S.A.) Optimus Lubricants Instant Hand Sanitizer
- Maquiladora Miniara’s Shine and Clean Hand Sanitizer
- Maquiladora Miniara’s Selecto Hand Sanitizer
- Mystic International’s Mystic Shield Protection Hand Sanitizer
- Soluciones Cosmeticas’ Bersih Hand Sanitizer Gel Fragrance-Free
- Soluciones Cosmeticas’ Antiseptic (alcohol 70 percent) Topical Solution hand sanitizer
- Soluciones Cosmeticas’ Hand Sanitizer labeled as Wet Look Janitorial
- Soluciones Cosmeticas’ Hand Sanitizer labeled as Gardening Corp.
- Tropicosmeticos’ Britz Hand Sanitizer (ethyl alcohol 70 percent)
- Yara Elena De La Garza Perez Nieto’s DAESI hand sanitizer
- Real Clean Distribuciones’s Born Basic Anti-Bac Hand Sanitizer
- Real Clean Distribuciones’s Anti-Bac Hand Sanitizer
- Real Clean Distribuciones’s Scent Theory Pure Clean Anti-bacterial Hand Sanitizer
- Real Clean Distribuciones’s Cavalry
- Real Clean Distribuciones’s Enliven Hand Sanitizing Gel
- Real Clean Distribuciones’s Lux Eoi Hand Sanitizing Gel
- Real Clean Distribuciones’s Keep It Clean
- Real Clean Distribuciones’s Hand Sanitizer
- MXL Comercial’s Hand Sanitizer Disinfectant Gel, with 70 percent ethyl alcohol
- MXL Comercial’s Hand Sanitizer Disinfectant Gel (70 percent ethyl alcohol) Rinse Free Hand Rub
- Liqesa Exportacion Optimus Lubricants Instant Hand Sanitizer
- Scent Theory ‘Keep It Clean’ Anti-Bacterial Hand Sanitizer
- MXL Comercial / Resource Recovery & Trading Hand Sanitizer Disinfectant Gel (70 percent ethyl alcohol
- Eskbiochem 361 All Clean Hand Sanitizer, Moisturizer and Disinfectant
- Saniderm Advanced Hand Sanitizer (officially banned from imports on July 15)
The market research company ReportLinker said sales of hand sanitizer products in the United States grew 73 percent in March, the first full month of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
U.S. sales of hand sanitizers totaled more than $2.7 billion in 2019, according to the market research company Grand View Research, which expects sales of such products to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22.6 percent through 2027. The company said polls show 77 percent of Americans surveyed in April regularly used hand sanitizers.
