Mounting poisonings, blindness, deaths as toxic hand sanitizers flood market

arstechnica.com

15 points·sohkamyung··6 comments

I've had to walk into grocery stores where they force you to use a squirt of their unlabeled bottle. I've seen a place use an "anti-microbial" liquid that contained no alcohol at all (I was intrigued by it and found that it used benzalkonium chloride ...and I'm not sure it's at all effective against the covid-19 virus). It's like we're at the point of hand-sanitizer-theatre. I think an earlier shortage meant that businesses were just purchasing whatever that could get their hands on.

Are these people drinking it? Everyone in my grad school chem lab washed hands with methanol to no ill effect

From the FDA's 2 July press release[1], it sounds like ingestion was the culprit. While it is absorbed through the skin, the rate is low: I found a study[2] that suggests 8 mg/cm^2/h. I'd be more concerned about the vapors.

[1]: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavi...

[2]: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004200050228

> Are these people drinking it?

Apparently, yes [1]: "The agency is aware of adults and children ingesting hand sanitizer products contaminated with methanol that has led to recent adverse events including blindness, hospitalizations and death."

[1] https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-u...

I'm a huge supporter of Darwin.

Lol, kids, do not try this at home!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com