Health Warning from the FDA

[helwen]

FDA warns against using some skin sanitizers:
Clarcon products linked to high levels of disease-causing bacteria

Analyses of several samples of over-the-counter topical antimicrobial skin sanitizer and skin protectant products revealed high levels of various bacteria, including some associated with unsanitary conditions, according to the agency. Some of these bacteria can cause opportunistic infections of the skin and underlying tissues and could result in medical or surgical attention as well as permanent damage.

Examples of products that should be discarded include Citrushield Lotion, Dermasentials DermaBarrier, Dermassentials by Clarcon, Antimicrobial Hand Sanitizer, Iron Fist Barrier Hand Treatment, Skin Shield Restaurant, Skin Shield Industrial, Skin Shield Beauty Salon Lotion, Total Skin Care Beauty and Total Skin Care Work.

Needless to say, they failed their inspection.

Comments

[harpnfiddle.livejournal.com]

Yeah - someone shared that with us at work. Can't say that I would have confidence in a sanitizer that could grow bacteria. Kinda defeats the purpose.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yah, just a wee bit eh? *sigh*

[freya46.livejournal.com]

I am afraid that I'm no longer comfortable buying US goods because of this stuff. Your standards are way lower than ours in most areas. :-( Either that, or your inspectors or a lot shoddier than ours.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I think there's been a lot of idiocy with companies not caring -- we certainly saw that with the peanut and pistachio processing places that new there was a problem but sent the food out anyway. Obviously this attitude problem extends to non-food items as well :(

On inspectors, there are either shoddy inspectors or not enough of them, or most likely a combination. We got inspected a little over a year ago and those guys were pretty thorough, checking out the kitchen, the boiler, all the various goods, etc. That was a homeland security thing actually, checking for where we get our supplies from etc., but while they were here they ran down the checklist.

I try not to buy as much processed foods as I used to because it seems like food from here, China, Mexico, and some other places simply are too risky. More or less I know what's safe and what isn't, although I confess sometimes it seems more like I'm depending on my sixth sense than any 'scientific' proof!

And I don't care for most of the antibacterial stuff anyway, no matter who makes it. For instance, the hand sanitizer stuff isn't reliable unless it's alcohol-based. I read somewhere that a lot of hospitals switched to non-alcohol-based sanitizer because repeated use was damaging to peoples' hands -- but really they should be washing with soap as often as possible and only using sanitizer when they don't have time to wash properly. Me, I _make_ the time to wash my hands. When I was an active MT I would sometimes use sanitizer if I'd gotten down to the feet and then my client finally remembered something else they wanted to have me work on; then I washed up after the session as well.

It's getting so that it really is better and safer to stick to basic products and making your own stuff -- or buying homemade from people you trust. This is true whether we're talking about cleaning products or food. Heck, we didn't have nearly the problem with e. coli that we do nowadays, back when operations were smaller. One of the reasons we had the problem with spinach a few years back wasn't just contamination of soil or machinery but the fact that everything is packaged -- provided the perfect environment for the bacteria to flourish. Fresh greens shouldn't be packaged.