The Trump administration has cracked down on hand sanitizers that contain ethanol (ethyl alcohol), hitting supplies as the demand soars at a time when the nation is facing the worst health crisis.
It has tightened restrictions on the use of ethanol-based hand sanitizer, forcing suppliers to halt their sales at a time when there is a soaring demand, according to reports seen by Reuters.
The restriction is meant to protect people from potentially dangerous impurities in ethanol-based hand sanitizers. However, this could lead to shortages of the product that helps hospitals, nursing homes, and others to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
On April 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued restrictions on using certain chemicals permitted in alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Since then, the agency has noted that certain companies do not meet safety standards, prompting them to halt production and cancel all supply agreements.
In one case, the drug regulatory body said it had found higher levels of the carcinogen called acetaldehyde in ethanol, which was used in hand sanitizer, according to a recent email seen by Reuters.
It wrote, “FDA has reviewed your ethanol data and determined that it is not acceptable as an ingredient under the Agency’s temporary hand sanitizer policies.”
The FDA told Reuters the agency decided to update the guidance after reviewing ingredient data supplied by ethanol companies.
The agency “was committed to working with manufacturers, compounders, state boards of pharmacy and the public to increase the supply of alcohol-based hand sanitizer available to Americans,” the FDA said.
The crackdown is a major blow to the already affected ethanol industry. Since March, the industry had invested millions of dollars to bolster production of hand sanitizers. However, its main business of supplying the fuel industry plumped drastically.
Ethanol companies have hit back and criticized the FDA’s move. They said the FDA should further ease its safety standards to ensure hand sanitizers are widely available during the ogling coronavirus pandemic. “Where are the pros and cons here? You’ve got nursing homes out of hand sanitizer,” said Allan Delmare, a distiller at Dida’s Distillery, a Virginia-based company that had been purchasing ethanol to produce hand sanitizers.
