Health Canada is expanding its recall of certain hand sanitizers over fears the products may include industrial-strength ethanol, bringing the total now pulled back from the market to nearly two dozen.
In a notice posted Friday afternoon, the department warns Canadians to be alert to the type of hand sanitizer as its recall list reaches 23 brands being recalled for containing the ingredient, which isn’t authorized for use in Canadian hand sanitizers.
“Industrial-grade ethanol contains impurities that are not found in the type of ethanol approved for use in manufacturing hand sanitizers … In addition, chemicals that may not be approved for use in hand sanitizers are added to industrial-grade ethanol,” said the notice from Health Canada.
That notice warned that industrial-strength ethanol has not been reviewed for safety or efficacy since it isn’t an approved ingredient in Canada, and that using products containing it can lead to dry skin, irritation and cracking.
Stop using the recalled items, the notice advises. It adds that people can return the items to their local pharmacy.
Since Health Canada first issued a recall notice on June 6, it has added multiple rounds of new hand sanitizer listings on June 10, June 11, June 22 and July 3.
The full list of recalled hand sanitizers products and their producers is as follows:
- Aktif Antiseptique instantané pour les mains (Laboratoire Hygienex Inc.)
- Biogel (Groupe Savon Olympics Inc.)
- Dash Vapes Hand Sanitizer (DashVapes Inc.)
- Eltraderm Hand Sanitizer – 70 per cent Ethyl Alcohol (Eltraderm Limited)
- eSafe (Groupe Enov, Inc.)
- Gel 700 Hand Sanitizer (Nature’s Own Cosmetic Company Inc.)
- Gel Antiseptique Pour Les Mains (Mégalab Inc.)
- Germzero (Flash Beauté Inc.)
- Hand Sanitizer (Contract Packaging Distributions Inc.)
- Hand Sanitizer Alco-San (Crown Chemical Products, Inc.)
- Hand Sanitizer/Désinfectant pour les mains (Walker Emulsions Ltd.)
- Healthcare Plus Sanitizing Hand Gel (The Color Group, Division of Canadian Custom Packaging)
- Manogel (Constant America)
- Protectenol Hand Sanitizer Liquid (Applied Lubrication Technology)
- Sanilabs Hand Sanitizer 70 per cent Ethanol (Sanilabs Inc.)
- Sanitagel (Jefo Nutrition, Inc.)
- Smart Care (R&D Technical Solutions Ltd.)
- Tekare Instant Hand Cleanser Gel (TEKPolymer Inc.)
- Tidol Hand Sanitizer 70 per cent (Tidol Corporation)
- Vima-San (Crown Chemical Products, Inc.)
- Walker Emulsions Hand Sanitizer (Walker Emulsions Ltd.)
- X-Pure Vert-2-Go Gel (Wood Wyant Inc.)
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