Some hand sanitizers that popped up during the coronavirus pandemic to help meet the demand, contain high levels of a cancer-causing chemical, a new analysis finds.
Valisure, an online pharmacy based in New Haven, Connecticut, said it has detected benzene in several batches across multiple brands of hand sanitizer.
The product is considered as dangerous as asbestos and several companies had levels up to eight times that the limit recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
'The presence of benzene, a known human carcinogen, and multiple other contaminants, in products widely recommended for the prevention of spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 and regularly used by adults and children in large volumes makes these findings especially troubling,' Valisure wrote in a letter to the FDA.
Is Your Child Eating Candy That Contains This Possible Carcinogen?
Titanium dioxide, a possible carcinogen used as an artificial color additive, anti-caking agent or whitener in supplements and in a wide variety of processed foods — including candy — is linked to changes in gut microbiota that may lead to inflammatory bowel disease or colorectal cancer.
A class action lawsuit was filed in July against Mars Inc. for fraud of omission since the company does not disclose the use of titanium dioxide in Skittles, an ingredient the suit calls “unfit for human consumption.”
Titanium dioxide is used as an artificial color additive, anti-caking agent or whitener in a wide variety of processed foods. The International Agency for Research on Cancer finds it possibly carcinogenic and the European Union has banned the ingredient, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says there isn’t evidence to demonstrate any safety concerns.
Consumption of titanium dioxide is linked with changes in your gut microbiota that may lead to inflammatory bowel disease or colorectal cancer; research has also shown that multiple food additives may have an amplified health effect when combined.