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Thread: CDC Alert: Toxic hand sanitizer products containing methanol coming from Mexico

  1. #1
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    Exclamation CDC Alert: Toxic hand sanitizer products containing methanol coming from Mexico

    Hey Everyone;

    I just got an alert E-mail from the EMS Division Director at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. He wanted all EMTs in the state to read and understand the significance of this recent CDC announcement:
    Link: https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2020/han00434.asp

    In a nutshell, the CDC discovered that a Mexico-based company called "Eskbiochem SA de CV" has been selling hand sanitizer with methanol in it, rather than isopropyl alcohol or ethanol. (D'oh!) Obviously methanol can be readily absorbed through the skin, and repeated exposure can cause liver and kidney failure, blindness, and even death. Children are especially vulnerable. I looked up the minimum lethal dose (for ingestion anyway) and I was surprised to see it was estimated at just 1 gram/KG of body weight! So, yeah, definitely no bueno...

    Apart from that one manufacturer listed in the CDC announcement, the US FDA just issued a bunch of recalls for products from other manufacturers (again, all from Mexico) who *claim* to be using ethanol, but when their products were tested the FDA found significant levels of methanol contamination. The FDA website has a list of 46 products (along with lot numbers) that have been recalled due to methanol contamination.
    Link: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safet...izers-methanol

    So the take-away is "Don't buy any hand sanitizer that was made in Mexico". Just thought I'd pass it on.

    Adam

  2. #2
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    Thanks Adam

    The one on my desk smells something awful, like the bottle of cheap tequila me and Vale had at SELEM about 4 years ago, but at least it's not from Mexico....
    Sincerely,
    Ryan Smith
    ScannerMAX Mechanical Engineer
    ryan {at} scannermax.com

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by rns0504 View Post
    The one on my desk smells something awful
    I know what you mean! We've had to start using alternate sources of sanitizing products at work as well, and some of them smell terrible...

    About 6 weeks ago we purchased some medical-strength sterilizing solution at the plant. (And I do mean medical-strength: just 3 ounces in a gallon of water give guaranteed 5 orders of magnitude reduction in 15 minutes!) The first time we mixed up a batch of that stuff the smell from the concentrated solution was enough to take your breath away. Like sticking you head into a bucket of paint thinner or something! Even the diluted solution smells pretty bad, but at least the smell doesn't linger. We try not to use that stuff any more than we have to (basically just for the twice-daily wipe-downs), and for the more common uses we use the alcohol-based stuff instead.

    like the bottle of cheap tequila me and Vale had at SELEM about 4 years ago
    Wait - you had tequila at SELEM and you didn't offer me a shot? What the hell dude?

    Actually, I haven't gone on a good tequila bender in a very long time, but back when I was in Nuc school (and thus still young, single, and oh-so-very stupid) it was my go-to drink. I look back and cringe at all the brain cells I killed... And yeah, there's tequila, there's *good* tequila, and then there's that cheap shit that you can buy for like $7 per bottle (a fifth, that is). Definitely want to avoid that cheap shit no matter what! (Worst hangover ever)

    Earlier this year I was at a bar with a few managers from my company and one of them asked the server about their "top shelf" tequila. I figured the answer would be Patrone, but it turns out there are a whole bunch of brands that are way more expensive. I graciously accepted a shot of whatever the stuff was, and yeah, it was good, but when I learned that it was $30 per shot I had to bow out. I had no idea tequila could ever compete with 25 year old single-malt scotch in terms of price! I just can't justify spending that kind of money on booze.

    Back on topic for a bit - while I can't explain the stupidity of that one company (Eskbiochem SA de CV) actually *choosing* to use methanol in their sanitizer, with regard to the other companies that are listed on the FDA website as having product recalls for methanol contamination, it is very likely that those other companies simply screwed up their distillation process by trying to go to fast. If you rush the distillation you can lose control of which fraction you're collecting.

    When you ferment yeast and sugar (or any carbohydrate for that matter), you will always have some methanol produced along with the ethanol. So when you distill the resulting mash to separate and concentrate the alcohol, you have to be very careful with the temperature of your distillation column and you absolutely must discard the first distillate fraction (the lower temp one, which will be the methanol). To be safe, even after the first fraction is gone and the temperature starts to rise (which is when the ethanol will start to boil off), it is considered prudent to discard the first several minutes of distillate flow from the top of the column to be sure all traces of methanol have been flushed out.

    But if you let your temperature control get away from you early in the process and don't hold the temperature at that lower range long enough to boil off all the methanol, you can end up stable at the higher temp range and end up boiling off both methanol and ethanol at the same time. This is bad, because the column temperature is the primary means of knowing which alcohol you are distilling. So an unskilled operator might think that all the methanol is gone, since the column is stable at the higher ethanol temperature, while actually collecting both methanol and ethanol in the final product. Bad news...

    (Incidentally, this is one reason why making hard liquor at home is so dangerous. Apart from being a federal crime, it's also very easy to screw up the distillation process and end up with methanol poisoning.)

    Adam

  4. #4
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    I ended up with 2 liters of that crap. I had used nearly half a liter before I found out. If I seem stupider than usual, that's probably why.

    ANyway, the company paid to have the stuff shipped back for analysis. They said they'd replace it with something better, but I'm not sure if I'll trust it or not.

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    Soap and water people.
    just soap and water.....

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    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    Soap and water people.
    just soap and water.....
    Completely agree. Soap and water is far superior to hand sanitizer! Although there are situations where hand sanitizer is the only option, as soon as you get to a place where you can wash with soap and water, you should always do that even if you used hand sanitizer previously. (And remember to wash for 20 seconds - which roughly equates to singing "Happy Birthday" to yourself *TWICE*.)

    Also, just to clarify - the medical-strength concentrated sanitizing solution with the awful smell that I mentioned earlier is not actually meant to be used as hand sanitizer; it is designed to disinfect surfaces like tables, counter-tops, keyboards, and telephones.

    But the products coming from Mexico that have the methanol contamination were all labeled specifically as "hand sanitizer".

    Adam

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    It appears the awe full smell may be Thymol. It’s a legit product but it has a distinct odor and is not meant for hands. It’s pretty alkaline. Relative of phenol.

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    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    It appears the awe full smell may be Thymol. It’s a legit product but it has a distinct odor and is not meant for hands. It’s pretty alkaline. Relative of phenol.
    No, this stuff is based on quatenary amines. (Technically it's n-Alkyl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride and n-Alkyl Dimethyl Ethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride, if you want the chewy stuff.)

    The idea is that the casing around a virus (as well as the cell wall around a bacterium) has a negative charge, and these long-chain amines have a positive charge (quatenary) which makes them adhere to that outer surface.

    But yeah, it still smells pretty bad, at least to my nose!

    Adam

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    Quote Originally Posted by buffo View Post
    No, this stuff is based on quatenary amines. (Technically it's n-Alkyl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride and n-Alkyl Dimethyl Ethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride, if you want the chewy stuff.)

    The idea is that the casing around a virus (as well as the cell wall around a bacterium) has a negative charge, and these long-chain amines have a positive charge (quatenary) which makes them adhere to that outer surface.

    But yeah, it still smells pretty bad, at least to my nose!

    Adam

    Quants usually don't have an odor. well a strong one. same stuff they use for cleaning in bars and such for tables. these are not amines. here is more than you want to know https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics...nium-compounds

    If what you have is an amine it will likely smell like dead rotting fish or other things......from your youth

    Soap and water.

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