FDA Warns Of Dangerous Contamination In Some Hand Sanitizer

It was less than two weeks ago that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the wide ranging recall of the popular Fresh Express line of bagged salads due to possible contamination.

At the same time, the agency issued a warning about hand sanitizer that could contain the potentially toxic chemical methanol.

While the initial warning that was issued on July 2nd only included about a dozen brands of hand sanitizer, in the week and a half since, dozens more brands have been added to the warning, including a number of brands that have been sold locally here in New Jersey.

As I was looking at the list, I was surprised to see a name that I recognized, Blumen brand hand sanitizer. When I checked my medicine cabinet, sure enough, I had a number of bottles of Blumen hand sanitizer that I had bought at the grocery store a number of weeks ago when hand sanitizer was hard to find, so I of course stocked up.

According to the FDA warning, the Blumen brand products are believed to have been produced at the same facility that also produced hand sanitizer that the agency detected methanol in.

According to the FDA, methanol, "...is a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin or ingested and can be life-threatening when ingested".

You can see the full list of hand sanitizer that the FDA has both recalled and issued warnings about by clicking here.

If you have any of the hand sanitizer that's listed in your house, you should stop using it immediately.