{"id":311,"date":"2021-02-12T17:14:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T01:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/washington\/foundation\/articles\/after-20-people-die-and-dozens-become-ill-fda-finally-flags-hand-sanitizer-mexico\/"},"modified":"2022-08-06T04:23:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-06T11:23:35","slug":"after-20-people-die-and-dozens-become-ill-fda-finally-flags-hand-sanitizer-from-mexico","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/washington\/foundation\/articles\/after-20-people-die-and-dozens-become-ill-fda-finally-flags-hand-sanitizer-from-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"After 20 people die and dozens become ill, FDA finally flags hand sanitizer from Mexico"},"featured_media":13387,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[157],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"person_tax":[],"region_tax":[],"state":[7,8,9,12,13,16,18,23,24,25,28,29,2,32,33,34,36,38,40,41,42,46,50,52],"topic_tax":[124,120],"class_list":["post-311","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":[120,124],"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":false,"event_type":false,"campaigns":157,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[2,7,8,9,12,13,16,18,23,24,25,28,29,32,33,34,36,38,40,41,42,46,50,52],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":124}},"featured_image":13387,"caption_override":"","excerpt":"Consumers still at risk for harmful over-the-counter drug products of all types because of soft federal regulations.","updated_on":null,"sidebar_action":null,"hide_hero_image":false,"sidebar_action_query_string":""},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":[{"type":"dynamic","dynamic_person":{"site":16,"people":"128"},"information":{"name":"","image":"","role":"","biography":"","contact":{"twitter":"","facebook":"","email":"","phone":""}}}]},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

In the category of \u201cIt\u2019s about time,\u201d the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now flagging all alcohol-based hand sanitizers imported from Mexico, saying the shipments are being scrutinized more closely and may be detained.<\/p>\n

This is the first time the FDA has issued an\u00a0import alert<\/a>\u00a0for any category of drug product from an entire country. It comes after 230\u00a0varieties of sanitizer<\/a>, nearly all from Mexico, have been deemed unsafe.<\/p>\n

In a stunning revelation, the FDA now says its analyses of alcohol-based hand sanitizers imported from Mexico from April through December found 84 percent of the samples were not in compliance with FDA regulations, most because they contained dangerous levels of toxic ingredients.<\/p>\n

But the regulator is still slow-walking its efforts to protect consumers.<\/p>\n

This move to review imports more closely comes more than seven months after the FDA first found that hand sanitizers imported from Mexico contained methanol, or wood alcohol, which can be harmful if absorbed through the skin, and life-threatening if ingested. Toxic hand sanitizers were connected to at least 20 deaths, plus numerous cases of blindness and other injuries and illnesses last year, the FDA said.<\/p>\n

The crisis emerged last spring and summer COVID-19 gripped the nation and it was nearly impossible to buy hand sanitizer from recognized manufacturers, either in stores or online. Opportunists filled the void, selling hand sanitizer that they didn\u2019t know or didn\u2019t care was manufactured so carelessly that it contained toxic substances. Desperate consumers, meanwhile, jumped at the chance to buy something to help keep them safe. Most of us would have no reason to know that hand sanitizer is classified as an over-the-counter drug that these companies weren\u2019t registered to sell. Never mind that we\u2019d never heard of most of these brands before. My favorites were the ones without a brand: They just said, \u201cHand Sanitizer.\u201d<\/p>\n

By mid-August, the FDA had designated about 160 varieties of sanitizer as unsafe because they contained toxic alcohols or didn\u2019t contain enough germ-killers to be effective. Only in August did the FDA start tip-toeing toward protecting consumers. It began requiring companies to test each lot of its ethanol and isopropanol (the accepted\u00a0active ingredients<\/a>) for methanol contamination if they were obtained from an outside source. But testing in a compliant lab isn\u2019t required.<\/p>\n

In September, the FDA strengthened testing standards, requiring producers to conduct an \u201cimpurity\u201d test to find whether any methanol exists in any lot of alcohol used in production, and disclose the level.<\/p>\n

Now we get the Mexico-wide import alert.<\/p>\n

The actions to protect consumers still fall short. While the flood of toxic products slowed after known brands such as Purell and Germ-X started reappearing on store shelves in September, the FDA still flagged about three dozen potentially dangerous hand sanitizers in the last four months.<\/p>\n

Here are steps that would protect consumers:<\/p>\n