16 ms·

Benzene detected in hand sanitizers

217 points by maddyboo 6y ago

maddyboo 6y ago
I happen to have purchased a large 1 gallon jug of sanitizer produced by ArtNaturals, the brand with the highest concentration detected, from Costco in October. I’ve been using it daily ever since, and have even used it to refill the bottle of sanitizer in my car. Later today I am shipping it off to Valisure to be tested. They noted high variability in concentrations from batch to batch that they tested, so I’m hoping I got “lucky”. Edit: by "lucky", I mean I hope my sanitizer was not contaminated or the contamination was minimal, obviously! Odd I even need to state this.
- canadianfella 6y ago
  What’s lucky? Looking to sue?
captainredbeard 6y ago
"""In June 2020, FDA updated their guidelines for the production of liquid hand sanitizer to temporarily allow for the presence of benzene of up to 2.0 ppm “to reflect data submitted by fuel ethanol manufacturers producing ethanol via fermentation and distillation, indicating that at least some of their fuel ethanol products have harmful chemicals, including gasoline and benzene, which are known human carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).”""" WTF government, this is why many of us don't trust you.
- patcon 6y ago
  i mean, what's the alternative here? This feels like just the complexity and tradeoffs of living in reality -- a bit of perpetual "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Either they're "preventing life-improving sanitizer from reaching citizens in a time of need", or they're "poisoning citizens" by letting through just a tiny bit of byproduct that would be MUCH more common if they weren't taking a regulatory role. This is an apparatus solving a complex, high-dimensional system of equations, not as academic test for which there's a real "right answer", no? * shrug *
  - stickybandit 6y ago
    Hold on with the $10 words and political philosophy. Explain the "need" for hand sanitizer for an illness not transmitted on surfaces. And yet the "deep cleaning" "deep sanitizing" is still happening. It's still a guideline! The tiny silver lining of this event is its selection pressure on people buying rando gallon jugs of hand sanitizer at Costco because "germs bad." What's wrong with everyone??? Wake me up.
    - searine 6y ago
      >not transmitted on surfaces. Not transmitted as readily. >And yet the "deep cleaning" "deep sanitizing" is still happening. Every bit helps, and yeah it is mostly theatre but if thats what gets business... Humans are filthy. If this is what it takes to get people to wear a mask when sick (as habit) and wash their appendages. Then fine.
      - Daho0n 6y ago
        You don't need sanitizer to wash appendages though. Soap is better.
        searine 6y ago
        Agreed, but a sink and soap aren't always available. So I am happy to encourage hygiene by making it more convenient.
      - peytn 6y ago
        > If this is what it takes to get people to wear a mask when sick (as habit) and wash their appendages That’s the noble goal, but in reality it seems this strategy has led to enormous divisions, eroded the credibility of our institutions, and required the support of a censorship appendage clothed modestly by the fig leaf of private enterprise. Telling the whole truth without trying to manipulate the behavior of adults feels like it would’ve been a wiser approach.
        6y ago
- raverbashing 6y ago
  The only thing that matters is: what is the risk of 2ppm of it in hand sanitizer? My guess is that it's very little It is volatile. It won't spend much time in your hand. You won't breathe a significant amount of it. You aren't ingesting it. "Oh but Benzene is carcinogenic" yes, it's also present in Whisky, in a bread slice that was left too long in the toaster, etc. > The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a permissible exposure limit of 1 part of benzene per million parts of air (1 ppm) in the workplace during an 8-hour workday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene#Exposure_to_benzene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene#Exposure_to_benzene
  - Scoundreller 6y ago
    > You aren't ingesting it. That’s the problem: people do. Can be an issue on some hospital units, even when you add the bitter stuff to it.
    - lazide 6y ago
      The reality is, no one drinking hand sanitizer out of dispensers at the hospital is going to live long enough to see any real change in cancer risk due to 2ppm benzene in the hand sanitizer though are they?
      - Scoundreller 6y ago
        depends how long they're in the hospital for...
        lazide 6y ago
        Pretty sure you’re gonna die of straight up ethanol poisoning or cirrhosis of the liver before even 100ppm of benzene contamination in said 70% pure ethanol is going to do it. Just a guess, not volunteering for that study.
- searine 6y ago
  Stop being dramatic. 2ppm isn't a lot, and it is a temporary measure. Benzene can be absorbed through the skin but most of it evaporates off (as hand sanitizer is intended to do) before it is absorbed. So yeah. The FDA reasonably updating guidelines to make sure people can buy hand sanitizer during a global pandemic is probably better than the fraction of a percent increased risk of cancer.
  - captainredbeard 6y ago
    Not everyone who disagrees with you is stupid. You are entitled to your take on my unpopular opinion but it's arguing in bad faith to label my concerns as "dramatic". I simply disagree about the tradeoffs and it doesn't come from an uninformed or non-quantitatively-thinking position, I just weigh health risk mitigation higher than you do (even for long tail risks). In this case, my primary issue isn't with the 2ppm of benzene itself, it's with the race to quickly and quietly change it in the first place. The FDA (and the Feds in general) move glacially on important topics but when their buddies in the ethanol fuel business need something, they jump to loosen regulations to make production easier.
    - searine 6y ago
      What is more likely: A. There is a long standing conspiracy between the FDA and ethanol plants to sell adulterated hand sanitizer. B. There is a global pandemic and given that emergency the FDA set aside normal regulations to expedite local antiseptic production.
      - captainredbeard 6y ago
        False dilemma. This doesn't require a long standing conspiracy (or one at all), just a willingness to benefit big business, which generally doesn't favor the citizenry.
- refurb 6y ago
  What are your specific concerns with 2 parts per million of benzene? Did you know roasted coffee beans contain similar carcinogenic compounds at similar levels (0.5 to 1ppm)? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4933506/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4933506/
donut2d 6y ago
Do you know what works great as hand sanitizer? Rubbing alcohol - no scent, no additives, no gummy weirdness, and cheaper.
- clairity 6y ago
  know what’s even better? plain old soap.
  - azinman2 6y ago
    Can’t easily wash my hash my hands with soap in my car.
    - nikolay 6y ago
      Actually, there is dry soap nowadays, but you still need a little bit of water.
      - lazide 6y ago
        I’d really hesitate before depending on that to any extent health wise. Water is an amazing solvent, and you get huge benefit from washing things away in it after oils and similar hydrophobic substances have been de-hydrophobic’d
    - yellowapple 6y ago
      What sort of peasant doesn't have an entire lavatory in one's automobile?
      - Scoundreller 6y ago
        My bike has one so I don’t know how a car couldn’t.
  - devwastaken 6y ago
    Soap is great but requires people to go through the much more rigorous and unavailable method of washing hands. Hand sanitizers are much faster and easier, which makes sanitization available in areas where it wasn't previously. For example in the office, school, stores, anywhere you're handling materials, etc. You should absolutely wash hands too, but there are a lot of reasons for portable hand sanitizers.
wolfi1 6y ago
there is a WHO guide for a DIY hand sanitizer: https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/Guide_to_Local_Production.pdf https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/Guide_to_Local_Production.pdf
mnw21cam 6y ago
Why does this page have an "opacity: 0" in the CSS? I mean, why would you ever do that?
- skulk 6y ago
  They're just showing their dedication to transparency.
  - f6v 6y ago
    That reminds me of my first N26 bank card in Germany. I got one in the mail and immediately called them: "Wtf? Why is the card transparent?". 5 seconds later: "That shows our commitment to transparency..."
    - sn_master 6y ago
      RobinHood's bank card is half-transparent, half-full-black. I wonder what they're trying to tell us?
- alphabet9000 6y ago
  so when another class is added that makes the element have opacity: 1, it animations a transitions from 0 to 1
Proven 6y ago
"Detected" doesn't mean we should care enough to read the article. It could still be harmeless, or unlikely to be harmful.
duckfang 6y ago
I'm glad that I've been making our household sanitizer then. Everclear is 95% ethanol (food safe) I take 3 parts everclear with 1 part water. Mix, and put in spray bottles. That's an alcohol concentration of .95*.75 = 71.25% That's within the WHO's recommendations for concentrations from 70%-80% It can be sprayed on your hands, surfaces, food, etc. And since it's all food-grade products, is safe (well, as much Everclear is "safe"!). (You can also modify the recipe by using 3 parts everclear with 1 part food-grade aloe vera, for a lasting hydrating effect especially on the hands. Make sure you're not allergic to aloe before doing this. Anaphylactic shock is no laughing matter.)
- tclancy 6y ago
  >as much Everclear is "safe"! A weekly argument in college.
- didgeoridoo 6y ago
  Vegetable glycerin also works well for hydration in place of aloe, and has the advantage of not leaving residue on your hands. A bit harder to get your hands on, though.
  - Semaphor 6y ago
    It’s actually pretty easy to get, every pharmacy has it (extremely expensive), almost every ecig store that caters to DIY (expensive), and many stores for horse supplies (cheap). The quality (at least here in Germany) is exactly the same for all of them.
- Analemma_ 6y ago
  This works, but depending on where you live you might be paying tons of unnecessary tax by doing it. Many states have "sin taxes" on alcohol- in WA, they amount to something like 60% of the sticker price! You're just burning that money if you're using it on hand sanitizer.
  - duckfang 6y ago
    When the pandemic first really started, you couldn't find any isopropyl anywhere. However the liquor store had 1.75l everclear for $30. 1 bottle of that lasted me 4 months, including making face shields in bags with this. As time went by, iso was gradually back on the shelves.. however the food grade benefits of everclear made this choice better all around. We're on our 3rd handle, at a total cost of $90. And considering my SO is in the health field working with potential covid-positive indivuals, we consider this to have been well worth whatever we've paid in taxes. I'm sure other states have higher taxes. Thankfully we're not in one of those.
spqr0a1 6y ago
In case anyone is wondered why there is benzene in hand sanitizer: Ethanol forms an azeotrope with water, which makes it impossible to dry completely without further processing. Benzene forms its own azeotrope with water at an even lower boiling point which allows for cheaply drying ethanol by further distillation; With the, in this case inconvenient, side effect of residual benzene contamination. Now you don't actually need dry ethanol for hand sanitizer, but the production capacity for fuel-grade ethanol is way larger than pharmaceutical or food grade.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- VLM 6y ago
  To extend the factual data, benzene costs about twice as much as ethanol does (to one sig fig) so its obviously a contamination or production mistake as opposed to a money saving opportunity. Wet ethanol is going to be a little bit cheaper to make than contaminated dry ethanol, so its a mistake or supply demand thing. As such there is little point in the FDA doing a recall; I thought hand sanitizer went out of style around the time masks came into style. Use by the general public of both seems to have virtually no effect on long term population transmission rate. "Feel good" "keep them busy" activities.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - asveikau 6y ago
    Anecdotally, hand sanitizer is quite popular in places I come across in San Francisco. Some businesses require a squirt of it at entry.
    - fho 6y ago
      It's basically mandatory in every grocery store in Germany ... and every other store follows suit.
nikolay 6y ago
In the beginning of the pandemic, I bought 5 + 2 gallons of food-grade ethanol. I also bought Everclear at 60% knowing others could be cocktails of chemicals made somewhere abroad. Unfortunately, recently I lowered my guard and started to use more convenient stuff bought at Amazon, and I started to get some irritation with it.
sparrish 6y ago
"EPA has set 5 ppb [parts per billion] as the maximum permissible level of benzene in drinking water." Only 4 products of the hundreds they tested had a concentration greater than 5ppb. - artnaturals hand sanitizer SCENT FREE NATURAL ELEMENTS + CLEANSING FORMULA - 16.1ppb - SS LAVENDER & HERBS scented sanitizer ALCOHOL ANTISEPTIC 70% - 13.8ppb - huangjisoo HAND SANITIZER GEL TYPE HAND CLEANSER 62% THANOL 91% ORGANIC - 11.4ppb - TrueWash Instant Hand Sanitizer Natural - 6.2ppb
- emeth 6y ago
  Friend, I think you added three zeroes. Those four hand sanitizers are listed at the below link with those metrics at PPM (parts per million), not PPB (parts per billion). https://www.valisure.com/wp-content/uploads/Valisure-FDA-Citizen-Petition-on-Hand-Sanitizer-v4.14.pdf https://www.valisure.com/wp-content/uploads/Valisure-FDA-Cit...
- cwkoss 6y ago
  How easily does benzene travel through the skin? Is it worse to sanitize with 16ppm sanitizer or drink 5ppb water? This study indicates that ~0.25% of benzene permeates skin. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6531855/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6531855/ Sounds like benzene on skin may be 400x less dangerous than the same quantity ingested.
  - maddyboo 6y ago
    Also keep in mind that along with the other volatiles, much of the benzene will evaporate into the air after application and you will likely breathe some of that vapor.
- lostlogin 6y ago
  The contrast between the product name and the product content is just excellent.
- gnulinux 6y ago
  Total layman here. Question: if 5ppm in drinking water is safe, which would imply we deem it safe to drink unlimited amount of water with 5ppm benzene in it for our entire lives; would it really be problematic to use hand sanitizers with 15ppm (3x) for a few months? (Also considering, as other commenters in this thread say, ingesting benzene through skin is less efficient compared to drinking, according to some claims). I've no idea how they determine safe ranges for these chemicals, but as an engineer, I'm thinking if I were to do something like this, I'd leave some wiggle room. Like if I say 5ppm is safe, but if noticeable amount of people get leukemia with 10ppm, I would consider my job failed. Because 5ppm, although is safe, is too close to the danger zone therefore is not practical. So I'd guess small perturbations around 5ppm would not have noticeable affects (again, I'm a total layman, this is a question, not a claim).
scottrogowski 6y ago
I'd be curious to see whether we actually see an uptick in cancers in the coming months/years. If so, I wonder whether it will turn out that using hand sanitizer resulted in a net increase or decrease in overall mortality. Evidence that Covid spreads through surfaces is sparse and that route of transmission is no longer emphasized by the CDC https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4. While the IFR of COVID varies, it appears to be below 1% for most regions of the world, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.13.20101253v3 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.13.20101253v.... Could anyone who is more informed than me estimate what the increased mortality would be for those who religiously use hand sanitizer with this level of benzene? My guess is still lower than COVID but I have no reference point.
- bitcharmer 6y ago
  I'm getting this strange vibe from your comment that somehow sanitizer-induced cancer might be a greater problem than COVID, which doesn't agree with common sense if you ask me. What am I missing here?
  - _red 6y ago
    You better double-mask up to be safe!!!
  - DennisP 6y ago
    They didn't say it's a worse problem than covid. They said it might be a worse problem than getting covid from touching stuff, since that turned out to be way less common than airborne droplet transmission.
  - tbabb 6y ago
    I think the proposal is that sanitizer induces more risk than it mitigates, since it's now unlikely that hand sanitation is related to covid transmission. Nonetheless, other things are transmitted by unclean hands, which is almost certainly a greater risk than the benzene.
  - CivBase 6y ago
quirk 6y ago
As a distillery owner I was happy to see that this wasn't another takedown of craft distillers by the sanitizer industry. Very good to see zero US distilleries in their report.
- mrguyorama 6y ago
  I wasn't aware of any issues with distillery produced hand sanitizer, real or scare tactic. There was an earlier issue with methanol in hand sanitizer, but I would have figured distilleries wouldn't have trouble with that since they already have to deal heavily with preventing methanol getting in the final product and it's a well understood thing
  - throwawayboise 6y ago
    There was a kerfuflle some months back when the FDA was going around slapping huge fines on craft distilleries who were making hand sanitizer. Don't recall the specifics, it was either something about exceeding allowed production quotas for ethanol, or taxes, maybe both. I believe that sanity prevailed and the fines were not imposed.
    - paulmd 6y ago
      there are some flat licensing fees for each production facility the FDA oversees, and since you're producing hand sanitizer, well... no good deed left unpunished. thankfully yes, sanity prevailed.
yellowapple 6y ago
Honestly, I'm less concerned about the benzene and more concerned by the implication that hand sanitizer makers are trying to make their hand sanitizers taste good.
- lostlogin 6y ago
  I work at a medical practice. I’ve seen more than one kid run up to a hand sanitizer and do something that blasts it in their eyes. It’s instant chaos with screaming and yelling from the kid and a frantic search for a bathroom from the parents. So maybe a taste that ain’t completely awful would be an improvement.
  - Johnny555 6y ago
    I'm not sure how having great tasting hand sanitizer would make it any less shocking when someone squirts it in their eyes? Since you're not supposed to be drinking it at all, I don't see the benefit in flavoring it.
  - yellowapple 6y ago
    1. I didn't know that eyeballs have taste buds. This gives me some new restaurant ideas. 2. Usually the idea is that you make it taste bad so that people ain't tempted to ingest it (or quickly learn not to). Same reason why compressed air cans have bittering agents: so that people don't huff 'em.
aaomidi 6y ago
I use 70% isopropyl alcohol. I hate the smells and weird feelings the other hand sanitizers leave on my hands.
- extrapickles 6y ago
  If you’re doing this, make sure you are not using technical grade isopropyl, as that can have a bunch of nasty side products in it. Getting the correct isopropyl online is problematic as people have been watering down technical grade and selling it as 70% medical (USP) grade.
  - aaomidi 6y ago
    Fortunately I had a few bottles from a few years ago. Was able to avoid the buying frenzy. Good catch though!
- sn_master 6y ago
  Don't you need the glycerine to prevent your skin from getting dry? dry skin is more prone to micro wounds and cracks that allow the bacteria and virus to get in.
  - aaomidi 6y ago
    The pros of being an oily middle eastern.
hyko 6y ago
Whoever Valisure are, they’ve never heard of baby Yoda.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  Valisure is an amazing company. I purchase all of my prescription and OTC medications from them (except for one which they do not carry).
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
Almost every chemical factory which had license to Ethanol where I live started making hand sanitizers to meet/exploit the demand last year. Most of them where just white-labeled and so I wouldn't be surprised if there was other harmful substances in it. Doctors here advise to use soap over hand sanitizers if there's water available. But now there's another problem, all these obsessive hand wash with soap is making the skin dry[1] and causing other skin problems. [1] https://needgap.com/problems/198-hand-wash-liquid-which-doesnt-make-the-skin-dry-skincare-hygiene https://needgap.com/problems/198-hand-wash-liquid-which-does... (Disclaimer: It's a problem validation platform I built).
- webkike 6y ago
  Cold water is just as effective as hot water for washing and will prevent your hands from drying out as easily
  - stochastician 6y ago
    I desperately hope this is the case, but a quick google couldn't find a link. Do you happen to have a citation that you'd recommend? I say this as someone who is a bit paranoid about hand cleanliness _and_ is very tired of cracked skin.
    - adkadskhj 6y ago
      I too am a curious dry-skin person. I thought i had read something to the affect of the interaction between soaps and bacteria worked better in warm water than cold. I'll be really interested if i can avoid warm water.
    - igneo676 6y ago
      https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article/80/6/1022/200017/Quantifying-the-Effects-of-Water-Temperature-Soap https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article/80/6/1022/200017... Beyond the citation though, it makes logical sense. The mechanism for sanitation is that the soap itself destroys the bacteria. This mechanism works regardless of temperature. Cold water + Soap should be just fine as long as your hands are otherwise visibly clean. In the food industry, we were required to use high temperature water. This was presumably to remove actual surface contaminants (dirt, grease, other food contaminants) rather than for actual sanitation. That's why you might still see guidelines for using hotter water temperatures.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
1-6 6y ago
Kinda glad I went with Purell and GermX during the whole pandemic. Can't go wrong with highly recognized brand names most of the time.
- missedthecue 6y ago
  If you could find it
  - sn_master 6y ago
    It was rare only for the first couple months, since then you can find it everywhere. Even grocery stores now have thermometers and other corona gear that weren't even carrying before.
- Johnny555 6y ago
  I got a couple 8oz bottles of Purell near the beginning of the pandemic, then it completely disappeared from shelves and it's only been recently that I've seen it stocked again
hyko 6y ago
Although Valisure has made a good faith effort to obtain samples reasonably representative of the general supply, many brands and formulations are not included I guess the sampling methodology is key if you’re trying to learn anything about overall risk to the public. 92% of the batches sampled had levels that were within FDA guidelines, but unless we know how representative those samples are in terms of market share, it really tells us very little. 16ppm seems crazy high though. Always worth bearing in mind the general principle of taking only the minimum effective dose of anything; you’re trying to sanitise your hands, not strip your epidermis away through carpet bombing.
throwawayboise 6y ago
Hand sanitizer is unnecessary for most people. Washing hands is better, and surface contact is no longer thought to be a significant vector for COVID transmission.
amelius 6y ago
I've found that hand sanitizers cause a tingling sensation and makes me more prone to RSI-like symptoms. Could this be related? Has anyone had a similar experience?
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  what is RSI?
  - amelius 6y ago
    Repetitive strain injury. I've found that hand sanitizer triggers it. Sounds weird, but I'm pretty sure, as I went on and off sanitizer about 4 times during this pandemic and I noticed the symptom come and go every time.
kens 6y ago
This reminds me of when Perrier water was recalled in 1990 after it was found to be contaminated with benzene. The contamination was only discovered because a random environmental protection lab had been using Perrier instead of deionized water for convenience. They were puzzled when benzene spikes started showing up in their samples. Eventually they realized their samples were find and the bottled water was the source.
analyte123 6y ago
Aside from the benzene and methanol [1] contamination, I've never heard anyone else comment on all the sketchy emergency-authorization sanitizers at restaurants and other places that cause your hands to smell like prohibition era whiskey mixed with Pine-Sol for an hour. It's funny but it's also not, given the tons of money made selling chemical waste for people to put on their skin. [1] https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-updates-hand-sanitizers-consumers-should-not-use#products https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-u...
- ManBlanket 6y ago
  My hope is in the wake of resistant bacteria and diseases caused by a tsunami of endocrine disrupting chemical products, maybe society will come to the conclusion we ought to pragmatically consider data and peer reviewed science when we weigh the pros and cons of public policy. Nobody seems to be asking whether unprecedented amounts of waste, the sky-rocketing rates of suicide and deaths from child abuse, or state sanctioned extermination of species were worth it. Nobody seems to be asking how effective any of these measures were, or whether the goal was ever realistic. Let alone whether all this was worth preventing the inevitable spread of a disease that when all is said and done will kill around a couple million people, average age older than the average lifespan. Begs the question when we live in a world where 8 million people die of diseases associated with fossil fuel pollution, average age around 5 years old. Not going to hold my breath. If growing up post 9-11 taught me anything it's that humans just want to live their lives in fear of the unlikely and use it to be a jerk those they view as outsiders to the tribe.
  - pfraze 6y ago
    Fwiw the US really botched the lockdown strategy through lack of coordination. Lockdowns don’t appear to be feasible for longer than a month; people begin to break the rules and reduce its efficacy, plus the economic damage starts to overshadow the health effects. For shorter periods, however, they stop outbreaks. The best strategy is then to use masks, cancel large gatherings, and use lockdowns in short bursts to respond to outbreaks. The US couldn’t form a cohesive strategy around this and fell into a partisan fight over whether to lockdown at all, leading to a perpetual half-implemented lockdown, the worst of all options. If we choose to do a retrospective on the value of lockdowns, we should bear in mind that “perpetually” is not the only way to use them.
idlewords 6y ago
Another good reason not to drink hand sanitizer, but this is a corporate press release in search of a problem. The first thing any minute traces of benzene will do is evaporate harmlessly off your hands, likely giving you orders of magnitude less benzene exposure than you get filling your gas tank.
trophycase 6y ago
Save yourself the trouble. Unless you're immunodeficient or touching people for your job stop using this stuff.
- sn_master 6y ago
  How about coming and going from an Uber? Door handle, seat and such all got touched by people before you.
tamaharbor 6y ago
Just tell Marketing to emphasize the “Now with Benzene” angle.
refurb 6y ago
Not sure if anyone noticed, but Valisure is the same pharmacy that caught the carcinogen in stomach acid drugs last year. Their business model is to do their own analysis of drugs at their pharmacy.
failwhaleshark 6y ago
I just threw out some Born Basic (~3.5 ppm C₆H₆) that was purchased on-sale but I didn't have the receipt. This is some BS. The US needs to get its chemicals oversight, regulations, and enforcement up to European standards. TSCA is just one example of horrible laws that permit poisons.
ekianjo 6y ago
Not too long ago organic chemistry students (in the 70s) were washing their glass using benzene instead of just using acetone, without great protection. Of course we now know Benzene is bad for health, but certainly not at the trace level we are talking about here...
sabujp 6y ago
(walmart) equate brand hand sanitizer has no benzene! Surprisingly no purell, walgreens, cvs, rite-aid or other generic store brands were tested
sn_master 6y ago
I know stories back when anti-lice medicine was expensive and rare (1960s-1970s), guys would shave off their head but girls couldn't, so they would pour benzine on their hair instead to get of the lice, and take several days off the school for the smell to go away.
mjgs 6y ago
Maybe the safest thing todo is just wash your hands in vodka. Seriously, there are a lot of places around the world where there won’t be any way to ensure that you don’t have cancer hand sanitizer. Although now you’ve got flammable hands, so perhaps not. What a terrible situation.

217 points by maddyboo 6y ago

I happen to have purchased a large 1 gallon jug of sanitizer produced by ArtNaturals, the brand with the highest concentration detected, from Costco in October. I’ve been using it daily ever since, and have even used it to refill the bottle of sanitizer in my car. Later today I am shipping it off to Valisure to be tested. They noted high variability in concentrations from batch to batch that they tested, so I’m hoping I got “lucky”. Edit: by "lucky", I mean I hope my sanitizer was not contaminated or the contamination was minimal, obviously! Odd I even need to state this.

canadianfella 6y ago
What’s lucky? Looking to sue?

captainredbeard 6y ago

"""In June 2020, FDA updated their guidelines for the production of liquid hand sanitizer to temporarily allow for the presence of benzene of up to 2.0 ppm “to reflect data submitted by fuel ethanol manufacturers producing ethanol via fermentation and distillation, indicating that at least some of their fuel ethanol products have harmful chemicals, including gasoline and benzene, which are known human carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).”""" WTF government, this is why many of us don't trust you.

patcon 6y ago
i mean, what's the alternative here? This feels like just the complexity and tradeoffs of living in reality -- a bit of perpetual "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Either they're "preventing life-improving sanitizer from reaching citizens in a time of need", or they're "poisoning citizens" by letting through just a tiny bit of byproduct that would be MUCH more common if they weren't taking a regulatory role. This is an apparatus solving a complex, high-dimensional system of equations, not as academic test for which there's a real "right answer", no? * shrug *
- stickybandit 6y ago
  Hold on with the $10 words and political philosophy. Explain the "need" for hand sanitizer for an illness not transmitted on surfaces. And yet the "deep cleaning" "deep sanitizing" is still happening. It's still a guideline! The tiny silver lining of this event is its selection pressure on people buying rando gallon jugs of hand sanitizer at Costco because "germs bad." What's wrong with everyone??? Wake me up.
  - searine 6y ago
    >not transmitted on surfaces. Not transmitted as readily. >And yet the "deep cleaning" "deep sanitizing" is still happening. Every bit helps, and yeah it is mostly theatre but if thats what gets business... Humans are filthy. If this is what it takes to get people to wear a mask when sick (as habit) and wash their appendages. Then fine.
    - Daho0n 6y ago
      You don't need sanitizer to wash appendages though. Soap is better.
      - searine 6y ago
        Agreed, but a sink and soap aren't always available. So I am happy to encourage hygiene by making it more convenient.
    - peytn 6y ago
      > If this is what it takes to get people to wear a mask when sick (as habit) and wash their appendages That’s the noble goal, but in reality it seems this strategy has led to enormous divisions, eroded the credibility of our institutions, and required the support of a censorship appendage clothed modestly by the fig leaf of private enterprise. Telling the whole truth without trying to manipulate the behavior of adults feels like it would’ve been a wiser approach.
      - 6y ago
raverbashing 6y ago
The only thing that matters is: what is the risk of 2ppm of it in hand sanitizer? My guess is that it's very little It is volatile. It won't spend much time in your hand. You won't breathe a significant amount of it. You aren't ingesting it. "Oh but Benzene is carcinogenic" yes, it's also present in Whisky, in a bread slice that was left too long in the toaster, etc. > The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a permissible exposure limit of 1 part of benzene per million parts of air (1 ppm) in the workplace during an 8-hour workday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene#Exposure_to_benzene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene#Exposure_to_benzene
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  > You aren't ingesting it. That’s the problem: people do. Can be an issue on some hospital units, even when you add the bitter stuff to it.
  - lazide 6y ago
    The reality is, no one drinking hand sanitizer out of dispensers at the hospital is going to live long enough to see any real change in cancer risk due to 2ppm benzene in the hand sanitizer though are they?
    - Scoundreller 6y ago
      depends how long they're in the hospital for...
      - lazide 6y ago
        Pretty sure you’re gonna die of straight up ethanol poisoning or cirrhosis of the liver before even 100ppm of benzene contamination in said 70% pure ethanol is going to do it. Just a guess, not volunteering for that study.
searine 6y ago
Stop being dramatic. 2ppm isn't a lot, and it is a temporary measure. Benzene can be absorbed through the skin but most of it evaporates off (as hand sanitizer is intended to do) before it is absorbed. So yeah. The FDA reasonably updating guidelines to make sure people can buy hand sanitizer during a global pandemic is probably better than the fraction of a percent increased risk of cancer.
- captainredbeard 6y ago
  Not everyone who disagrees with you is stupid. You are entitled to your take on my unpopular opinion but it's arguing in bad faith to label my concerns as "dramatic". I simply disagree about the tradeoffs and it doesn't come from an uninformed or non-quantitatively-thinking position, I just weigh health risk mitigation higher than you do (even for long tail risks). In this case, my primary issue isn't with the 2ppm of benzene itself, it's with the race to quickly and quietly change it in the first place. The FDA (and the Feds in general) move glacially on important topics but when their buddies in the ethanol fuel business need something, they jump to loosen regulations to make production easier.
  - searine 6y ago
    What is more likely: A. There is a long standing conspiracy between the FDA and ethanol plants to sell adulterated hand sanitizer. B. There is a global pandemic and given that emergency the FDA set aside normal regulations to expedite local antiseptic production.
    - captainredbeard 6y ago
      False dilemma. This doesn't require a long standing conspiracy (or one at all), just a willingness to benefit big business, which generally doesn't favor the citizenry.
refurb 6y ago
What are your specific concerns with 2 parts per million of benzene? Did you know roasted coffee beans contain similar carcinogenic compounds at similar levels (0.5 to 1ppm)? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4933506/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4933506/

donut2d 6y ago

Do you know what works great as hand sanitizer? Rubbing alcohol - no scent, no additives, no gummy weirdness, and cheaper.

clairity 6y ago
know what’s even better? plain old soap.
- azinman2 6y ago
  Can’t easily wash my hash my hands with soap in my car.
  - nikolay 6y ago
    Actually, there is dry soap nowadays, but you still need a little bit of water.
    - lazide 6y ago
      I’d really hesitate before depending on that to any extent health wise. Water is an amazing solvent, and you get huge benefit from washing things away in it after oils and similar hydrophobic substances have been de-hydrophobic’d
  - yellowapple 6y ago
    What sort of peasant doesn't have an entire lavatory in one's automobile?
    - Scoundreller 6y ago
      My bike has one so I don’t know how a car couldn’t.
- devwastaken 6y ago
  Soap is great but requires people to go through the much more rigorous and unavailable method of washing hands. Hand sanitizers are much faster and easier, which makes sanitization available in areas where it wasn't previously. For example in the office, school, stores, anywhere you're handling materials, etc. You should absolutely wash hands too, but there are a lot of reasons for portable hand sanitizers.

wolfi1 6y ago

there is a WHO guide for a DIY hand sanitizer: https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/Guide_to_Local_Production.pdf https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/Guide_to_Local_Production.pdf

mnw21cam 6y ago

Why does this page have an "opacity: 0" in the CSS? I mean, why would you ever do that?

skulk 6y ago
They're just showing their dedication to transparency.
- f6v 6y ago
  That reminds me of my first N26 bank card in Germany. I got one in the mail and immediately called them: "Wtf? Why is the card transparent?". 5 seconds later: "That shows our commitment to transparency..."
  - sn_master 6y ago
    RobinHood's bank card is half-transparent, half-full-black. I wonder what they're trying to tell us?
alphabet9000 6y ago
so when another class is added that makes the element have opacity: 1, it animations a transitions from 0 to 1

Proven 6y ago

"Detected" doesn't mean we should care enough to read the article. It could still be harmeless, or unlikely to be harmful.

duckfang 6y ago

I'm glad that I've been making our household sanitizer then. Everclear is 95% ethanol (food safe) I take 3 parts everclear with 1 part water. Mix, and put in spray bottles. That's an alcohol concentration of .95*.75 = 71.25% That's within the WHO's recommendations for concentrations from 70%-80% It can be sprayed on your hands, surfaces, food, etc. And since it's all food-grade products, is safe (well, as much Everclear is "safe"!). (You can also modify the recipe by using 3 parts everclear with 1 part food-grade aloe vera, for a lasting hydrating effect especially on the hands. Make sure you're not allergic to aloe before doing this. Anaphylactic shock is no laughing matter.)

tclancy 6y ago
>as much Everclear is "safe"! A weekly argument in college.
didgeoridoo 6y ago
Vegetable glycerin also works well for hydration in place of aloe, and has the advantage of not leaving residue on your hands. A bit harder to get your hands on, though.
- Semaphor 6y ago
  It’s actually pretty easy to get, every pharmacy has it (extremely expensive), almost every ecig store that caters to DIY (expensive), and many stores for horse supplies (cheap). The quality (at least here in Germany) is exactly the same for all of them.
Analemma_ 6y ago
This works, but depending on where you live you might be paying tons of unnecessary tax by doing it. Many states have "sin taxes" on alcohol- in WA, they amount to something like 60% of the sticker price! You're just burning that money if you're using it on hand sanitizer.
- duckfang 6y ago
  When the pandemic first really started, you couldn't find any isopropyl anywhere. However the liquor store had 1.75l everclear for $30. 1 bottle of that lasted me 4 months, including making face shields in bags with this. As time went by, iso was gradually back on the shelves.. however the food grade benefits of everclear made this choice better all around. We're on our 3rd handle, at a total cost of $90. And considering my SO is in the health field working with potential covid-positive indivuals, we consider this to have been well worth whatever we've paid in taxes. I'm sure other states have higher taxes. Thankfully we're not in one of those.

spqr0a1 6y ago

In case anyone is wondered why there is benzene in hand sanitizer: Ethanol forms an azeotrope with water, which makes it impossible to dry completely without further processing. Benzene forms its own azeotrope with water at an even lower boiling point which allows for cheaply drying ethanol by further distillation; With the, in this case inconvenient, side effect of residual benzene contamination. Now you don't actually need dry ethanol for hand sanitizer, but the production capacity for fuel-grade ethanol is way larger than pharmaceutical or food grade.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
VLM 6y ago
To extend the factual data, benzene costs about twice as much as ethanol does (to one sig fig) so its obviously a contamination or production mistake as opposed to a money saving opportunity. Wet ethanol is going to be a little bit cheaper to make than contaminated dry ethanol, so its a mistake or supply demand thing. As such there is little point in the FDA doing a recall; I thought hand sanitizer went out of style around the time masks came into style. Use by the general public of both seems to have virtually no effect on long term population transmission rate. "Feel good" "keep them busy" activities.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- asveikau 6y ago
  Anecdotally, hand sanitizer is quite popular in places I come across in San Francisco. Some businesses require a squirt of it at entry.
  - fho 6y ago
    It's basically mandatory in every grocery store in Germany ... and every other store follows suit.

nikolay 6y ago

In the beginning of the pandemic, I bought 5 + 2 gallons of food-grade ethanol. I also bought Everclear at 60% knowing others could be cocktails of chemicals made somewhere abroad. Unfortunately, recently I lowered my guard and started to use more convenient stuff bought at Amazon, and I started to get some irritation with it.

sparrish 6y ago

"EPA has set 5 ppb [parts per billion] as the maximum permissible level of benzene in drinking water." Only 4 products of the hundreds they tested had a concentration greater than 5ppb. - artnaturals hand sanitizer SCENT FREE NATURAL ELEMENTS + CLEANSING FORMULA - 16.1ppb - SS LAVENDER & HERBS scented sanitizer ALCOHOL ANTISEPTIC 70% - 13.8ppb - huangjisoo HAND SANITIZER GEL TYPE HAND CLEANSER 62% THANOL 91% ORGANIC - 11.4ppb - TrueWash Instant Hand Sanitizer Natural - 6.2ppb

emeth 6y ago
Friend, I think you added three zeroes. Those four hand sanitizers are listed at the below link with those metrics at PPM (parts per million), not PPB (parts per billion). https://www.valisure.com/wp-content/uploads/Valisure-FDA-Citizen-Petition-on-Hand-Sanitizer-v4.14.pdf https://www.valisure.com/wp-content/uploads/Valisure-FDA-Cit...
cwkoss 6y ago
How easily does benzene travel through the skin? Is it worse to sanitize with 16ppm sanitizer or drink 5ppb water? This study indicates that ~0.25% of benzene permeates skin. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6531855/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6531855/ Sounds like benzene on skin may be 400x less dangerous than the same quantity ingested.
- maddyboo 6y ago
  Also keep in mind that along with the other volatiles, much of the benzene will evaporate into the air after application and you will likely breathe some of that vapor.
lostlogin 6y ago
The contrast between the product name and the product content is just excellent.
gnulinux 6y ago
Total layman here. Question: if 5ppm in drinking water is safe, which would imply we deem it safe to drink unlimited amount of water with 5ppm benzene in it for our entire lives; would it really be problematic to use hand sanitizers with 15ppm (3x) for a few months? (Also considering, as other commenters in this thread say, ingesting benzene through skin is less efficient compared to drinking, according to some claims). I've no idea how they determine safe ranges for these chemicals, but as an engineer, I'm thinking if I were to do something like this, I'd leave some wiggle room. Like if I say 5ppm is safe, but if noticeable amount of people get leukemia with 10ppm, I would consider my job failed. Because 5ppm, although is safe, is too close to the danger zone therefore is not practical. So I'd guess small perturbations around 5ppm would not have noticeable affects (again, I'm a total layman, this is a question, not a claim).

scottrogowski 6y ago

I'd be curious to see whether we actually see an uptick in cancers in the coming months/years. If so, I wonder whether it will turn out that using hand sanitizer resulted in a net increase or decrease in overall mortality. Evidence that Covid spreads through surfaces is sparse and that route of transmission is no longer emphasized by the CDC https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4. While the IFR of COVID varies, it appears to be below 1% for most regions of the world, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.13.20101253v3 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.13.20101253v.... Could anyone who is more informed than me estimate what the increased mortality would be for those who religiously use hand sanitizer with this level of benzene? My guess is still lower than COVID but I have no reference point.

bitcharmer 6y ago
I'm getting this strange vibe from your comment that somehow sanitizer-induced cancer might be a greater problem than COVID, which doesn't agree with common sense if you ask me. What am I missing here?
- _red 6y ago
  You better double-mask up to be safe!!!
- DennisP 6y ago
  They didn't say it's a worse problem than covid. They said it might be a worse problem than getting covid from touching stuff, since that turned out to be way less common than airborne droplet transmission.
- tbabb 6y ago
  I think the proposal is that sanitizer induces more risk than it mitigates, since it's now unlikely that hand sanitation is related to covid transmission. Nonetheless, other things are transmitted by unclean hands, which is almost certainly a greater risk than the benzene.
- CivBase 6y ago

quirk 6y ago

As a distillery owner I was happy to see that this wasn't another takedown of craft distillers by the sanitizer industry. Very good to see zero US distilleries in their report.

mrguyorama 6y ago
I wasn't aware of any issues with distillery produced hand sanitizer, real or scare tactic. There was an earlier issue with methanol in hand sanitizer, but I would have figured distilleries wouldn't have trouble with that since they already have to deal heavily with preventing methanol getting in the final product and it's a well understood thing
- throwawayboise 6y ago
  There was a kerfuflle some months back when the FDA was going around slapping huge fines on craft distilleries who were making hand sanitizer. Don't recall the specifics, it was either something about exceeding allowed production quotas for ethanol, or taxes, maybe both. I believe that sanity prevailed and the fines were not imposed.
  - paulmd 6y ago
    there are some flat licensing fees for each production facility the FDA oversees, and since you're producing hand sanitizer, well... no good deed left unpunished. thankfully yes, sanity prevailed.

yellowapple 6y ago

Honestly, I'm less concerned about the benzene and more concerned by the implication that hand sanitizer makers are trying to make their hand sanitizers taste good.

lostlogin 6y ago
I work at a medical practice. I’ve seen more than one kid run up to a hand sanitizer and do something that blasts it in their eyes. It’s instant chaos with screaming and yelling from the kid and a frantic search for a bathroom from the parents. So maybe a taste that ain’t completely awful would be an improvement.
- Johnny555 6y ago
  I'm not sure how having great tasting hand sanitizer would make it any less shocking when someone squirts it in their eyes? Since you're not supposed to be drinking it at all, I don't see the benefit in flavoring it.
- yellowapple 6y ago
  1. I didn't know that eyeballs have taste buds. This gives me some new restaurant ideas. 2. Usually the idea is that you make it taste bad so that people ain't tempted to ingest it (or quickly learn not to). Same reason why compressed air cans have bittering agents: so that people don't huff 'em.

aaomidi 6y ago

I use 70% isopropyl alcohol. I hate the smells and weird feelings the other hand sanitizers leave on my hands.

extrapickles 6y ago
If you’re doing this, make sure you are not using technical grade isopropyl, as that can have a bunch of nasty side products in it. Getting the correct isopropyl online is problematic as people have been watering down technical grade and selling it as 70% medical (USP) grade.
- aaomidi 6y ago
  Fortunately I had a few bottles from a few years ago. Was able to avoid the buying frenzy. Good catch though!
sn_master 6y ago
Don't you need the glycerine to prevent your skin from getting dry? dry skin is more prone to micro wounds and cracks that allow the bacteria and virus to get in.
- aaomidi 6y ago
  The pros of being an oily middle eastern.

hyko 6y ago

Whoever Valisure are, they’ve never heard of baby Yoda.

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
Valisure is an amazing company. I purchase all of my prescription and OTC medications from them (except for one which they do not carry).

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago

Almost every chemical factory which had license to Ethanol where I live started making hand sanitizers to meet/exploit the demand last year. Most of them where just white-labeled and so I wouldn't be surprised if there was other harmful substances in it. Doctors here advise to use soap over hand sanitizers if there's water available. But now there's another problem, all these obsessive hand wash with soap is making the skin dry[1] and causing other skin problems. [1] https://needgap.com/problems/198-hand-wash-liquid-which-doesnt-make-the-skin-dry-skincare-hygiene https://needgap.com/problems/198-hand-wash-liquid-which-does... (Disclaimer: It's a problem validation platform I built).

webkike 6y ago
Cold water is just as effective as hot water for washing and will prevent your hands from drying out as easily
- stochastician 6y ago
  I desperately hope this is the case, but a quick google couldn't find a link. Do you happen to have a citation that you'd recommend? I say this as someone who is a bit paranoid about hand cleanliness _and_ is very tired of cracked skin.
  - adkadskhj 6y ago
    I too am a curious dry-skin person. I thought i had read something to the affect of the interaction between soaps and bacteria worked better in warm water than cold. I'll be really interested if i can avoid warm water.
  - igneo676 6y ago
    https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article/80/6/1022/200017/Quantifying-the-Effects-of-Water-Temperature-Soap https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article/80/6/1022/200017... Beyond the citation though, it makes logical sense. The mechanism for sanitation is that the soap itself destroys the bacteria. This mechanism works regardless of temperature. Cold water + Soap should be just fine as long as your hands are otherwise visibly clean. In the food industry, we were required to use high temperature water. This was presumably to remove actual surface contaminants (dirt, grease, other food contaminants) rather than for actual sanitation. That's why you might still see guidelines for using hotter water temperatures.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

1-6 6y ago

Kinda glad I went with Purell and GermX during the whole pandemic. Can't go wrong with highly recognized brand names most of the time.

missedthecue 6y ago
If you could find it
- sn_master 6y ago
  It was rare only for the first couple months, since then you can find it everywhere. Even grocery stores now have thermometers and other corona gear that weren't even carrying before.
Johnny555 6y ago
I got a couple 8oz bottles of Purell near the beginning of the pandemic, then it completely disappeared from shelves and it's only been recently that I've seen it stocked again

hyko 6y ago

Although Valisure has made a good faith effort to obtain samples reasonably representative of the general supply, many brands and formulations are not included I guess the sampling methodology is key if you’re trying to learn anything about overall risk to the public. 92% of the batches sampled had levels that were within FDA guidelines, but unless we know how representative those samples are in terms of market share, it really tells us very little. 16ppm seems crazy high though. Always worth bearing in mind the general principle of taking only the minimum effective dose of anything; you’re trying to sanitise your hands, not strip your epidermis away through carpet bombing.

throwawayboise 6y ago

Hand sanitizer is unnecessary for most people. Washing hands is better, and surface contact is no longer thought to be a significant vector for COVID transmission.

amelius 6y ago

I've found that hand sanitizers cause a tingling sensation and makes me more prone to RSI-like symptoms. Could this be related? Has anyone had a similar experience?

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
what is RSI?
- amelius 6y ago
  Repetitive strain injury. I've found that hand sanitizer triggers it. Sounds weird, but I'm pretty sure, as I went on and off sanitizer about 4 times during this pandemic and I noticed the symptom come and go every time.

kens 6y ago

This reminds me of when Perrier water was recalled in 1990 after it was found to be contaminated with benzene. The contamination was only discovered because a random environmental protection lab had been using Perrier instead of deionized water for convenience. They were puzzled when benzene spikes started showing up in their samples. Eventually they realized their samples were find and the bottled water was the source.

analyte123 6y ago

Aside from the benzene and methanol [1] contamination, I've never heard anyone else comment on all the sketchy emergency-authorization sanitizers at restaurants and other places that cause your hands to smell like prohibition era whiskey mixed with Pine-Sol for an hour. It's funny but it's also not, given the tons of money made selling chemical waste for people to put on their skin. [1] https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-updates-hand-sanitizers-consumers-should-not-use#products https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-u...

ManBlanket 6y ago
My hope is in the wake of resistant bacteria and diseases caused by a tsunami of endocrine disrupting chemical products, maybe society will come to the conclusion we ought to pragmatically consider data and peer reviewed science when we weigh the pros and cons of public policy. Nobody seems to be asking whether unprecedented amounts of waste, the sky-rocketing rates of suicide and deaths from child abuse, or state sanctioned extermination of species were worth it. Nobody seems to be asking how effective any of these measures were, or whether the goal was ever realistic. Let alone whether all this was worth preventing the inevitable spread of a disease that when all is said and done will kill around a couple million people, average age older than the average lifespan. Begs the question when we live in a world where 8 million people die of diseases associated with fossil fuel pollution, average age around 5 years old. Not going to hold my breath. If growing up post 9-11 taught me anything it's that humans just want to live their lives in fear of the unlikely and use it to be a jerk those they view as outsiders to the tribe.
- pfraze 6y ago
  Fwiw the US really botched the lockdown strategy through lack of coordination. Lockdowns don’t appear to be feasible for longer than a month; people begin to break the rules and reduce its efficacy, plus the economic damage starts to overshadow the health effects. For shorter periods, however, they stop outbreaks. The best strategy is then to use masks, cancel large gatherings, and use lockdowns in short bursts to respond to outbreaks. The US couldn’t form a cohesive strategy around this and fell into a partisan fight over whether to lockdown at all, leading to a perpetual half-implemented lockdown, the worst of all options. If we choose to do a retrospective on the value of lockdowns, we should bear in mind that “perpetually” is not the only way to use them.

idlewords 6y ago

Another good reason not to drink hand sanitizer, but this is a corporate press release in search of a problem. The first thing any minute traces of benzene will do is evaporate harmlessly off your hands, likely giving you orders of magnitude less benzene exposure than you get filling your gas tank.

trophycase 6y ago

Save yourself the trouble. Unless you're immunodeficient or touching people for your job stop using this stuff.

sn_master 6y ago
How about coming and going from an Uber? Door handle, seat and such all got touched by people before you.

tamaharbor 6y ago

Just tell Marketing to emphasize the “Now with Benzene” angle.

refurb 6y ago

Not sure if anyone noticed, but Valisure is the same pharmacy that caught the carcinogen in stomach acid drugs last year. Their business model is to do their own analysis of drugs at their pharmacy.

failwhaleshark 6y ago

I just threw out some Born Basic (~3.5 ppm C₆H₆) that was purchased on-sale but I didn't have the receipt. This is some BS. The US needs to get its chemicals oversight, regulations, and enforcement up to European standards. TSCA is just one example of horrible laws that permit poisons.

ekianjo 6y ago

Not too long ago organic chemistry students (in the 70s) were washing their glass using benzene instead of just using acetone, without great protection. Of course we now know Benzene is bad for health, but certainly not at the trace level we are talking about here...

sabujp 6y ago

(walmart) equate brand hand sanitizer has no benzene! Surprisingly no purell, walgreens, cvs, rite-aid or other generic store brands were tested

sn_master 6y ago

I know stories back when anti-lice medicine was expensive and rare (1960s-1970s), guys would shave off their head but girls couldn't, so they would pour benzine on their hair instead to get of the lice, and take several days off the school for the smell to go away.

mjgs 6y ago

Maybe the safest thing todo is just wash your hands in vodka. Seriously, there are a lot of places around the world where there won’t be any way to ensure that you don’t have cancer hand sanitizer. Although now you’ve got flammable hands, so perhaps not. What a terrible situation.