Artnaturals hand sanitizer
Photographer: Tiffany Hagler-Geard / Bloomberg
Photographer: Tiffany Hagler-Geard / Bloomberg
Some widely available hand sanitizers that American consumers purchased last year to prevent coronavirus infection contain high levels of a chemical known to cause cancer, an analysis by a testing company found.
A variety of hand cleaners that flooded the market after the mainstays disappeared from retail stores contain high levels of benzene, according to Valisure, an online pharmacy based in New Haven, Connecticut, which tests the quality and consistency of products.
Causes of benzene cancer, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. THE The cancer research arm of the World Health Organization puts it in the highest risk category, along with asbestos.
Valisure analyzed 260 bottles from 168 brands and found that 17% of the samples contained detectable levels of benzene. Twenty-one bottles, or 8%, contained benzene above two parts per million, a temporary limit that the FDA has set for liquid hand sanitizers to ease the tightening supply.
This level “can be tolerated for a relatively short period of time”, the FDA said in June. Fifteen brands were represented among the 21 bottles with the highest level of contamination. The samples came from store shelves near his headquarters and online outlets, Valisure said.
To view the Valisure citizen’s petition to the FDA, including a list of brands identified with high levels of benzene, Click here.
Urged by politicians and health officials to wash their hands, consumers quickly ran out of supplies for names known as Purell and Suave. Although these brands, like most tested, do not contain unsafe levels of benzene, many new competitors did, according to Valisure. Some of these contaminated disinfectants were found for sale in Amazon.com Inc. and Target Corp. selling points
Most of the hand sanitizers Valisure found and tested were gels. Pharmacy test results were verified by Yale University Center for Chemical and Biophysical Instrumentation and Boston Analytical, a private laboratory. On Wednesday, Valisure asked the Food and Drug Administration to act on contaminated products.
Brands of hand sanitizers with bottles testing the highest levels of benzene detected by Valisure
1. artnaturals 9. beauty concepts 2. Scentsational Soaps & Candles Inc. 10. PureLogic 3. huangjisoo 11. Miami Carry On 4. TrueWash 12. Natural Wunderz 5. The Creme Shop 13. clean-protect-sanitize 6. Star Wars Mandalorian 14. Puretize 7. Body Prescriptions 15. Hand Clean 100 8. Born Basic
Blood Cancer
“These findings are alarming and reveal a serious potential risk to public health,” said Valisure in a petition signed by the CEO David Light and other executives. The pharmacy had previously found high levels of other carcinogens in components of drugs manufactured abroad for the United States market.
Read more: America’s love affair with cheap drugs has a hidden cost
It is not clear how benzene came to be present in products. It may have been introduced during the manufacturing process, when the germ-destroying alcohol is purified, Valisure said.
Among the most contaminated hand cleaners were cleaning products artnaturals, Scentsational Soaps and Candles Inc., The Creme Shop and a Baby Yoda themed bottle from Best Brands Consumer Products Inc. Each began selling cleaning products tested by Valisure in April or May 2020, according to FDA records. An artnaturals disinfectant contained the largest amount of benzene in the samples, at 16 parts per million.
Calls and emails to manufacturers and retailers requesting comments were not returned earlier in the United States. Walt Disney Co., which airs the series “The Mandalorian”, in which the character Baby Yoda appears, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Better Brands Baby Yoda hand sanitizer
Photographer: Tiffany Hagler-Geard / Bloomberg
Benzene has been linked to certain blood cancers, such as leukemias. Cigarette smoke is responsible for about half of the exposure to benzene in the USA, according to the American Cancer Society. Workers in certain chemical industries are at risk of exposure to the material, which is used to make plastics and rubber.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health states absorption and ingestion through the skin are also possible. In 1990, a local environmental officer in North Carolina discovered benzene in Perrier water bottles that prompted the company to carry out a major recall and halt distribution to 120 countries. The company resumed bottling shortly after the problem was identified and resolved, and was purchased by Nestlé SA in 1992.
Origin in USA, China
With a focus on the safety of hand sanitizers, the FDA in January it blocked imports of products from Mexico after many of them contained methanol, a form of alcohol that is poisonous to humans. Most of the products found by Valisure with high levels of benzene were made in China or the United States
The analysis also found high levels of methanol in hand sanitizers. A Scentsational product that tested for high levels of benzene kept the methanol limit 14 times, which is 630 parts per million. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers should generally not contain methanol; they are usually made with ethanol, or grain alcohol, which is also used in some drinks.
Light, from Valisure, said he originally scoffed at the idea that a dangerous carcinogen like benzene would be in hand cleaners, but now he is happy that scientific director Kaury Kucera pushed to test it. Disinfectants may have been contaminated with benzene because it is sometimes used to purify alcohol, said Valisure.
Manufacturing process
Although benzene must be removed in the final stages of manufacture after the alcohol is purified, it may not have been, said Valisure. Gel hand sanitizer is also made by adding a powder called a carbomer, usually made with benzene, to create viscosity, the pharmacy said.
Read more: Carcinogen in Zantac and Generic Triggers FDA, EU Probes
The drugs were also found to contain carcinogenic substances that were not properly washed during the manufacturing process or formed later when the drugs were on the shelves. Contaminants include NDMA, or N-nitrosodimethylamine, a probable carcinogen found in blood pressure tablets in 2018, causing recalls.
Valisure later detected NDMA in the Zantac heartburn drug and its generic forms, as well as metformin, a treatment for diabetes, stimulating additional actions. The FDA eventually demanded that Zantac and its generic form, ranitidine, leave the market in the United States. About two dozen companies have sold FDA-approved products generic versions of the drug at the time.
In 2019, Valisure also identified high levels of a probable carcinogen called DMF, or dimethylformamide, in blood pressure medications. DMF is a solvent used during the early stages of drug manufacturing that must be eliminated from the final product. The FDA is taking a closer look at ingredient manufacturers that may use DMF.
Benzene is the third and most dangerous cancer-causing chemical that the pharmacy has helped to bring to the fore in product testing.
(Updates with the list of Valisure brands found to have higher levels of benzene)