Patriot Health Digest
Federal health officials in Washington are now asking American consumers to avoid a particular brand of hand sanitizers that has been found to be contaminated with some cancer-causing chemicals.
The Food and Drug Administration (also known as the FDA) said recently that it discovered “unacceptable amounts of acetaldehyde, benzene, and acetal contaminants” in some artnaturals scent-free hand sanitizers. The sanitizers are labeled as “DIST. by artnaturals Gardena, CA 90248,” as reported by the United States FDA.
The agency said, “The exact risk from hand sanitizer having benzene, acetaldehyde, or acetal is not known. However, benzene is one chemical that can trigger certain kinds of cancer in human beings. Likewise, research studies also reveal that acetaldehyde could also lead to cancer in consumers and trigger serious illness or even death.”
Additionally, acetal can lead to irritation in your upper respiratory tract, your eyes and your skin.
The FDA said that it made “multiple attempts” to contact artnaturals about the sanitizers, “including identification of the manufacturer, potential recalls, and the scope of this contamination” but did not hear back as of this past week.
As a result, the FDA is asking consumers not to use the artnaturals brand hand sanitizer products, which were added to its rolling list of possibly dangerous hand sanitizers.
The agency started the list, which is now filled with 260 products, in the early days of the covid pandemic after seeing an increasing amount of sanitizers testing positive for the bad and possibly poisonous ingredients.
However, the agency was specifically seeing a big increase in products that had tested positive for methanol which is another “ingredient in hand sanitizers and should not be used because of its toxic effects.”
Any product that is on the list should get disposed of “immediately,” according to the United States FDA.
Besides some hand sanitizers, health experts say indoor air and household products are filled with dangerous chemicals that could lead to cancer. They recommend using natural organic based cleaning products including carpet shampoo, dish detergent, laundry detergent, among other items in order to limit your family’s exposure to such harmful chemicals.
Author: Scott Dowdy
