The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers and health care professionals about hand sanitizer products containing methanol, or wood alcohol — a substance often used to create fuel and antifreeze that is not an acceptable active ingredient for hand sanitizer products and can be toxic when absorbed through the skin as well as life-threatening when ingested.

The agency has seen an increase in hand sanitizer products that are labeled to contain ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol) but that have tested positive for methanol contamination.

State officials have also reported recent adverse events from adults and children ingesting hand sanitizer products contaminated with methanol, including blindness, hospitalizations and death.

The FDA has also issued general guidelines regarding hand sanitizers, including that the FDA has “approved” no hand sanitizers, so any hand sanitizer saying “FDA approved” is fraudulently marked, that hand sanitizers are not to be ingested, and that some may not contain enough ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol to be effective.

The FDA warnings come at a time when COVID-19 cases in the country continue to rise.

Although hand sanitizers were in short supply early on in the pandemic, a non-comprehensive, informal survey of several stores on the Big Island showed it is now possible to purchase hand sanitizer at a number of local stores.  Hand sanitizer is even being made here on the island by local distillers such as 12th Hawaii Distiller at Ka’ahumanu Plaza in Kailua Kona and Kuleana Rum in Kohala. There are also companies on other islands making hand sanitizer.