Over the past few months due to COVID-19, we have all become increasingly diligent about thoroughly washing our hands and when that’s not possible using the next best thing – an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, which couldn’t be easier nor more convenient.
Unfortunately, since the personal care industry is unregulated, we tend to see news reports pop up alerting and, frankly alarming us, about the dangers of using some toxic products that contain harmful ingredients and the latest now involves that go-to hand sanitizer.
The FDA recently released a report that found nine hand sanitizer brands containing methanol, or wood alcohol, a substance that’s potentially dangerous when absorbed through the skin or ingested (check out the CBS news article for the nine brands to ensure they aren’t in your bag/car/home).
Substantial methanol exposure can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death, it said.
Terrifying, right?!
At a time when such products are in demand, it’s so sad to know that our government isn’t protecting us from such potentially dangerous ingredients, so the onus is on us to do our research to find safer alternatives, shop smarter and vote with our dollar for better products and practices.
While many hand sanitizers are still hard to come by, my favorites to have on-hand when hand washing isn’t an option are EO, Dr. Bronner’s and by Humankind (which I just purchased for the first time and love that it’s a refill), to name a few.
Living Cleaner, Easier & Safer 