Those hand sanitizers could be hazardous to your health
Talk about locking the barn door after the horse gets out!
Now that using hand sanitizers every day has become as common as brushing our teeth, the FDA has finally decided to find out if they’re safe.
And get this — the agency will especially be investigating if they’re dangerous for children and pregnant women to use.
Turns out that those innocent little bottles contain enough alcohol to make moonshine look like water. And that’s something that sends thousands of kids to the ER every year.
So before you squirt or foam one of these products on your hands (or especially your kids’ or grandkids’ hands), there are some important things to know about them.
Six-year old Nhaijah Russell arrived at the emergency room with a blood-alcohol level of double what would land an adult driver in jail.
All it took was swallowing three squirts of strawberry hand sanitizer that was being used at her school.
And hers is just one of thousands of such cases that have the phones at poison control centers ringing off the hook.
You can smell the alcohol when you use these products, but you probably never thought about how much is in them. And that would be up to 95 percent. Compared to a 12-ounce bottle of Budweiser (which is around 5 percent alcohol), it’s like doing shots every time you clean your hands!
That’s because aside from the danger these products can pose to kids who swallow them, the alcohol can also be absorbed into our bloodstream. And exactly how much is anyone’s guess.
You see, the FDA doesn’t really know. That’s one of the “data gaps” it’s hoping to fill in during the next few years.
Manufacturers of these products will first get six months to comment on the FDA’s concerns. Then, they have a year (or more) to submit data proving the products are safe when absorbed into our blood. Oh, and that they actually work.
And if it’s discovered that they’re not safe, well, that’s a whole other can of worms that will take who knows how long to address.
But what we already know about the three main ingredients found in most of these products is something that may make you think twice before using them so frequently and haphazardly.
For example:
- Ethyl alcohol: It’s an irritant to the skin, eyes and lungs when you inhale it, and can also be absorbed through your skin. As I said, the FDA really has no idea how much ends up in our blood after use. Studies have also found that high concentrations can harm a developing baby.
- Isopropyl alcohol: This is another chemical that’s very irritating to the skin and eyes, as well as being a known neurotoxin. It can also pass through the skin.
- Benzalkonium chloride: This chemical is a strong antimicrobial, used in things ranging from birth control to floor cleaners.
As far as the FDA goes, the last time it did any kind of review on these hand sanitizers was around 40 years ago, and it wasn’t much of a look, either. The agency explains that away by saying at that time they were primarily used “at events such as lobster dinners.”
Apparently, the fact they are now in every purse, office desk, and schoolroom somehow got away from them!
Now, I don’t have to tell you that frequent hand washing is one of the best ways to keep from getting sick. But if you have the choice between a bottle of hand sanitizer and good old soap and water, pick that.
Not only will you steer clear of absorbing alcohol and floor cleaner into your blood, but studies have found that it’s a much more effective way to get germs off your hands. And regular soap, (not antibacterial), is just fine.
Sources:
“Is your hand sanitizer safe? The FDA wants to know” Susan Scutti, June 30, 2016, CNN, cnn.com
