Cancer-causing chemical found in sanitizer distributed by Yale

Students, faculty and staff of Yale University were recently notified by email that the carcinogen benzene was found in two hand sanitizer brands distributed by Yale. That's according to YaleDailyNews.com.

Yale’s Environmental Health and Safety Department instructed students, faculty, and staff to dispose of "CleanHands" and "ArtNaturals" hand sanitizer.

The report says the contamination was identified by Valisure, an independent lab that regularly tests chemical and pharmaceutical products in the U.S. supply chain.

Normal FDA guidelines reportedly advise against the use of benzene in products like hand sanitizer, but the FDA loosened the guidelines because of the high demand for hand sanitizer during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Forty-four of the 260 hand sanitizer products tested by the lab were over FDA acceptable limits for the carcinogen.

One of the brands distributed by Yale University, ArtNaturals, had more than eight times the FDA allowable limit of the cancer-causing chemical.

A Yale University spokesperson said the college does not expect any health issues to arise from the extremely low level of benzene discovered in the hand sanitizers, but that it is taking immediate action to protect the health and safety of students, faculty and staff.

Yale is collecting all of the contaminated hand sanitizers and will dispose of them as hazardous waste at a commercial EPA-permitted facility for managing hazardous waste.

Yale spokesperson Karen Peart

Click on the link below to read the article in the YaleDailyNews.com:

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2021/04/01/carcinogen-found-in-hand-sanitizer-distributed-by-yale/