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before you take a swig, make sure it's not hand sanitizer
health canada warns that hand sanitizer may be packaged in beer or water bottles.
jun 11 2020
1 minute read
hand sanitizer is being packaged in bottles normally used for alcohol. stock/getty
before taking a swig from your favourite brew, be sure to check the label, warns health canada.
turns out that the mad dash to keep canadians well-stocked with hand sanitizer, which saw breweries and distilleries jumping on the protective hygiene bandwagon, has also created a shortage of “appropriate packaging, leaving manufacturers to use beer and water bottles.
in an advisory posted on thursday , health canada wrote, “some companies, such as breweries and distilleries, are using water, wine and liquor bottles for hand sanitizer,” adding that in some cases, the labels and branding can look the same as alcoholic beverages or bottled water. “ingesting hand sanitizer could cause serious harm, particularly in children, because of the high alcohol content,” hc said.
in may, the drug & poison information centre at the bc centre for disease control (bccdc) said calls had jumped from less than two a week in january and february to an average of seven per week in april, all involving children under five. during the same period, calls about adults being exposed rose from an average of one per week to 3.5 per week.
the advisory comes on the heels of an updated advisory recalling various hand sanitizers from the market for containing industrial-grade ethanol that has not been authorized for use in hand sanitizers in canada. the list of affected products is currently at 11.
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