IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i7p3766-d530089.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyses of Commercially Available Alcohol-Based Hand Rubs Formulated with Compliant and Non-Compliant Ethanol

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy J. Tse

    (Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada)

  • Fina B. Nelson

    (Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada)

  • Martin J. T. Reaney

    (Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada
    Prairie Tide Diversified Inc., 102 Melville Street, Saskatoon, SK S7J 0R1, Canada
    Guangdong Saskatchewan Oilseed Joint Laboratory, Department of Food Science and Engineering, Jinan University, 601 Huangpu Avenue West, Guangzhou 510632, China)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to panic-buying of alcohol-based hand rubs (ABHRs). In response, governmental agencies (e.g., Health Canada) permitted the sale of ABHRs formulated with “technical-grade” ethanol to alleviate the growing demand. Technical-grade ethanol contains elevated concentrations of impurities (e.g., acetaldehyde, etc.), which may exhibit dose-dependent toxicity. In this study, a rapid solvent extraction was employed to analyze gelled ABHRs via gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. In total, 26 liquid and 16 gelled ABHRs were analyzed for nine common impurities to determine compliance with Health Canada interim guidelines. Of 42 samples analyzed, 11 ABHRs appear to be non-compliant with interim Health Canada guidelines. Non-compliant ABHRs exhibited elevated concentrations of acetaldehyde, with a maximal concentration observed of 251 ± 10 µL L −1 ; 3.3× higher than currently permitted. Nonetheless, frequent testing of ABHRs should be routinely conducted to reduce the risk of consumer exposure to non-compliant ABHRs.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy J. Tse & Fina B. Nelson & Martin J. T. Reaney, 2021. "Analyses of Commercially Available Alcohol-Based Hand Rubs Formulated with Compliant and Non-Compliant Ethanol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3766-:d:530089
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3766/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3766/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lauren E. Gloekler & Elise J. de Gandiaga & Natalie R. Binczewski & Katie G. Steimel & Andrey Massarsky & Jordan Kozal & Melissa Vincent & Rachel Zisook & Mark J. LaGuardia & Scott Dotson & Shannon Ga, 2022. "Evaluation of the Safety and Efficacy of Hand Sanitizer Products Marketed to Children Available during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-18, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3766-:d:530089. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.