hand sanitiser recalled over cancer-causing contamination fears

A hand sanitiser used by many in the fight against COVID-19 was recalled after the US Food Drug Administration (FDA) found traces of cancer-causing impurities.

The FDA announced that ArtNaturals issued a voluntary recall of 10 lots of their Scent-Free Hand Sanitiser after all included eight-ounce bottles of the product were found to be spoilt.

Back in March, Valisure, a company that assesses the composition of different health-related products, announced that they had found benzene in samples from 44 hand sanitiser products reportedly from ArtNaturals.

Valisure had also released a copy of a letter addressed to the FDA that requested “a recall of identified batches of hand sanitiser products on the basis that, due to contamination with a known human carcinogen and other restricted contaminants”.

The letter ordered FDA to carry out further examinations and investigations of the dangerous products as well.

And the FDA acted quickly on the alarming request.

In October, after carrying out the investigations, the FDA announced that they had “found unacceptable levels of benzene, acetaldehyde, and acetal contaminants” in samples of the ArtNaturals’ sanitiser.

Three weeks later, ArtNaturals issued their voluntary recall of the batches of the cancer-impurity containing hand sanitisers.

And it is no surprise that the health watchdogs were so concerned by the reports of benzene in a product currently used by millions to avoid the spread of coronavirus.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has classified benzene as a carcinogen.

This means that if you repeatedly inhale, ingest or touch a product containing benzene, you run the risk of developing certain types of cancer.

Benzene can potentially mess with cells in your bone marrow and affect your marrow’s ability to produce red blood cells.

This can also lead to anaemia and abnormal bleeding.

But it can also affect your marrow’s ability to produce white blood cells, which protect your immune system.

A weakened immune system can lead to increased infections, which ironically is exactly what hand sanitiser exists to prevent.

But most shockingly of all, when benzene causes your bone marrow to produce abnormal cells, the result can be leukaemia.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) classifies leukaemia as a “broad term for cancers of the blood cells”.

Manufacturers commonly use benzene as a solvent to produce different types of products such as plastics, resins, nylons and synthetic fibres.

It is therefore bizarre how these unacceptable levels of benzene managed to get into the hand sanitiser during the manufacturing processes undertaken at ArtNaturals factories in China.

See more here: express.co.uk

Header image: CBS Los Angeles

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Comments (3)

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    spoonful

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    Probably just a coincidence that there is benzene in the face masks as well. Just an error in judgment, otherwise known as “unintentional” genocide

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    very old white guy

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    Did I see the word China in the article? Yes I did.

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