The Food and Drug Administration has added 12 new hand sanitizers to its list of cleansing products that may be dangerous because of the use of methanol.
Methanol is potentially poisonous when entering the human boy through the skin and can be fatal if ingested. According to the FDA, “methanol is not an acceptable ingredient in any drug, including hand sanitizer, even if methanol is listed as an ingredient on the product label.”
In total, there are now 87 products on the FDA’s rolling list, which had just nine products total on it in late June. An overwhelming majority of the potentially dangerous hand sanitizers have been manufactured in Mexico and the FDA is “proactively working” to recall products and urge distributors toe stop selling the products immediately.
The FDA also encouraged anyone who has previously purchased any potentially dangerous sanitizers to dispose of them immediately.
“We remain extremely concerned about the potential serious risks of alcohol-based hand sanitizers containing methanol,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn. “Producing, importing and distributing toxic hand sanitizers poses a serious threat to the public and will not be tolerated.”
The FDA has opened an investigation into methanol contamination.
You can see a full list of products to avoid here.