Eye: sanitizing gels that have benzene cause cancer, alert in the US

Some widely available hand sanitizers that American consumers bought last year to stave off coronavirus infection contain high levels of a cancer-causing chemical, an analysis by a testing company found.

A variety of hand cleansers that flooded the market after the mainstays of retail outlets disappeared contain high levels of benzene, according to Valisure, a New Haven, Connecticut-based online pharmacy that tests quality and the consistency of the products.

Benzene causes cancer, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization places it in the highest risk category, on a par with asbestos.

Valisure tested 260 bottles from 168 brands and found that 17 percent of the samples contained detectable levels of benzene. Twenty-one bottles, or eight percent, contained benzene above two parts per million, a temporary limit the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set for liquid hand sanitizers to ease the reduction in supply.

That 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 levels of contamination. The samples come from store shelves near its headquarters and online outlets, Valisure said.

The FDA tests hand sanitizers and works with companies, where appropriate, to recall products, said Jeremy Kahn, an agency spokesman. The FDA encourages retailers to pull products from store shelves and online marketplaces when quality issues arise, he said.

"The agency reminds manufacturers, distributors, repackagers and importers that they are responsible for the quality of their products and urges manufacturers to test their ingredients to ensure they meet specifications and are free from harmful contamination," Kahn said in an email. an email.

blood cancers

Urged by politicians and health officials to wash their hands, consumers quickly depleted supplies of household names like Purell and Suave. While those brands, like most of those tested, did not contain dangerous levels of benzene, many new entrants did, according to Valisure. Some of these contaminated sanitizers were found for sale at Amazon.com and Target outlets.

Most of the hand sanitizers that Valisure found and tested were gels. The pharmacy's test results were verified by Yale University's Center for Chemical and Biophysical Instrumentation and Boston Analytical, a private laboratory. On Wednesday, Valisure asked the Food and Drug Administration to take action on the contaminated products.

"These findings are alarming and reveal a serious potential risk to public health," Valisure said in a petition signed by CEO David Light and other executives. The pharmacy previously found high levels of other carcinogens in drug components manufactured abroad for the US market.

It is not clear how the benzene got into the products. It may have been introduced during the manufacturing process when the germ-killing alcohol is purified, Valisure said.

Among the most contaminated hand cleansers were products from Scentsational Soaps and Candles., The Creme Shop and a Baby Yoda-themed bottle from Best Brands Consumer Products. Each began selling the cleaners that were tested by Valisure in April or May. 2020, according to FDA records. An artnaturals disinfectant contained the most benzene of those sampled, at 16 parts per million.

Calls and emails to manufacturers and retailers requesting comment were not returned. Walt Disney, which broadcasts "The Mandalorian" series in which the Baby Yoda character appears, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Benzene has been linked to certain blood cancers, such as leukemia. Cigarette smoke accounts for about half of benzene exposure in the United States, according to American Cancer Society. Workers in certain chemical industries are at risk of exposure to the material, which is used to make plastics and rubber.

Cutaneous absorption

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health says that skin absorption and ingestion are also possible. In 1990, a local environmental official in North Carolina discovered benzene in Perrier water bottles, prompting the company to conduct a mass recall and halt distribution to 120 countries. The company resumed bottling shortly after the problem was identified and resolved, and was purchased by Nestlé in 1992.

The government watchdog Public Citizen helped lead an effort in the 1970s and 1980s to protect American workers from benzene exposure.

"It's been removed from most products, and for it not to be removed from a product that's here to prevent people from being exposed to the coronavirus is inexcusable," Sidney Wolfe, the group's founder, said in an interview. “Most of these do not have detectable levels. If it is possible to have hand sanitizers that do not have detectable levels, it is inexcusable that the FDA does not ban any hand sanitizer that does contain detectable levels.”

Origin of United States and China

Focusing on the safety of hand sanitizers, the FDA in January blocked imports of products from Mexico after many were found to contain methanol, a form of alcohol that is poisonous to humans. Most of the products Valisure found to contain high levels of benzene were manufactured in China or the US.

The analysis also found high levels of methanol in the hand sanitizers. A Scentsational product that tested for high levels of benzene maintained 14 times the limit for methanol, which is 630 parts per million. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers should not normally contain methanol; they are usually made with ethanol or grain alcohol, which is also used in some beverages.

Valisure's Light said it originally scoffed at the idea of ​​a dangerous carcinogen like benzene being in hand sanitizers, but is now glad chief science officer Kaury Kucera pushed to test it. The disinfectants could have been contaminated with benzene because it is sometimes used in the purification of alcohol, Valisure said.

manufacturing process

While the benzene must be removed in the final manufacturing steps after the alcohol is purified, that may not have been the case, Valisure said. Gel hand sanitizer is also made by adding a powder called a carbomer, often made from benzene, to create viscosity, the pharmacy said.

Drugs have also been found to contain carcinogens that were not properly removed during the manufacturing process or were formed later when the drugs were placed on shelves. Contaminants include NDMA, or N-nitrosodimethylamine, a probable carcinogen that was found in blood pressure pills in 2018, leading to recalls.

Valisure later detected NDMA in the heartburn drug Zantac and its generic forms, as well as in the diabetes treatment metformin, prompting further action. The FDA eventually required Zantac and its generic form, ranitidine, to be taken off the market in the US Some two dozen companies sold FDA-approved generic versions of the drug at the time.

In 2019, Valisure also identified elevated 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 is supposed to be washed out of the final product. The FDA is taking a closer look at ingredient manufacturers that might use DMF.

Benzene is the third most dangerous carcinogenic chemical that the drugstore has helped bring to light in product testing.

Brands of sanitizers with high levels of benzene

1.artnaturals

2. Scentsational Soaps & Candles

3. huangjisoo

4.TrueWash

5. The Creme Shop

6.Star Wars Mandalorian

7. Body Prescriptions

8. Born Basic

9.beauty concepts

10. PureLogic

11. Miami Carry On

12. Natural Wunderz

13.clean-protect-sanitize

14. Puretize

15.Hand Clean 100

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