Sanitizer Surge: Cautionary Consequences of COVID-19 Crisis
As COVID-19 blazed its path across the world, it sparked an insatiable demand for hand sanitizer, creating a frenzied market that had more in common with a gold rush than a public health measure. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stepped in, relaxing regulations to meet this spiraling demand. However, this decision, akin to opening Pandora's Box, triggered a cascade of unintended consequences, culminating in an environmental catastrophe in Carson, California.
Wire magazine describes the scene:
Without the threat of an FDA inspection, thousands of companies that had never made or sold hand sanitizer before, let alone any other over-the-counter drug, immediately began distribution. From whiskey and vodka distillers to manufacturers of CBD oils, beauty products, and drilling fluids, anyone with access to ethanol seemed to rebrand, overnight, as a sanitizer maker.
Hand sanitizer was seen as the modern-day protective talisman in the early stages of the pandemic, with sales spiking a staggering 470% in the first week of March 2020 alone. Under usual circumstances, stringent FDA regulations monitor hand sanitizer manufacturing, but the unprecedented scenario led to a relaxation of these rules. Suddenly, businesses were sourcing sanitizer from non-pharmaceutical-grade ethanol, leading to a wild west situation where companies with zero experience in sanitizer production flooded the market.
Enter ArtNaturals, a beauty company turned pandemic hand sanitizer supplier based in Carson. A seemingly innocuous decision to store thousands of bottles in unmarked warehouses next to a mobile home park became a ticking time bomb. On September 30, 2021, disaster struck when a fire erupted in one of these warehouses. Fueled by the highly flammable ethanol-based sanitizer, the fire blazed fiercely for 17 grueling hours, requiring the efforts of 200 firefighters to extinguish.
The aftermath of the fire was even more catastrophic. Leftover hand sanitizer contaminated the water system, washing down a nearby storm drain and leading to a domino effect of ecological disasters. In the following days, residents across southern LA County reported a noxious odor, a potent mix of rotten eggs and industrial chemicals, permeating the air. This stench was traced back to the Dominguez Channel, a waterway flowing through a populated stretch of residences and retail outlets.
This foul smell was identified as hydrogen sulfide, a gas formed by the breakdown of organic matter in low-oxygen conditions. Investigators discovered alarming levels of pollutants such as benzene, methanol, and ethanol in the channel, tracing it back to the ArtNaturals warehouse fire. Residents had been suffering from symptoms like headaches, dizziness, nausea, coughing, and difficulty breathing – a potent illustration of the intersection between environmental and public health hazards.
Carson's environmental calamity underscores the perilous side effects of policy decisions made amidst a crisis. The FDA's regulatory relaxation paved the way for a deluge of inexperienced manufacturers, contributing to potentially harmful products and hazardous conditions like the ones in Carson.
Compounding the issue was the challenge of dealing with hazardous waste. Disposing of sanitizer should be treated with the same caution as other hazardous waste, but the process is expensive and tedious. This daunting task was magnified by several fires involving vast quantities of unsellable hand sanitizer across the country in the past year.
To sum up, Carson, California, serves as a grim cautionary tale, underscoring the urgent need for a more nuanced approach to crisis management. The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom teaches us a hard lesson - the road the hell is paved with good intentions.
I'm old enough to remember when hospitals were concerned about the overuse of hand sanitizers and antibacterial soaps. Resulting in "superbugs" resistant to medical treatments. Warning about overuse creating the rapid evolution as microbiological threats that could survive alcohol and other sterilizing chemicals, faster than normal evolution would allow.
And then, 2020, those cautions were thrown to the wind. Never mind about a little passing poisonous air and poisonous water in Carson, California. Microbiology that spreads all over the world, untreatable. seems a bit more concerning. But it didn't matter. 'Cause, the flu.
Increasing tolerance of hospital Enterococcus faecium to handwash alcohols
Science Translational Medicine, August 1, 2018
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aar6115
Superbugs: Everything you need to know
Medical News Today, November 21, 2019
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327093#symptoms
Strange but True: Antibacterial Products May Do More Harm Than Good
Antibacterial soaps and other cleaners may actually be aiding in the development of superbacteria.
Scientific American, June 7, 2007
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-antibacterial-products-may-do-more-harm-than-good/
what did any of the green hysterics have to say about this? where was greta doomsberg? john kerry and his merry band of "special humans" who are saving the world?
i was hit by a car on feb 25, 2020 and when the "pandemic" started, was in a wheelchair. at one doctor's appointment (deemed essential), my boyfriend was not allowed in. the patients stood outside, 6 ft apart, waiting for their turn at the hand sanitizing station and a crack at answering stupid questions like "do you have a fever?"
when it was my turn, i said in my loudest voice "I WON'T USE THAT STUFF! IT CAUSES CANCER AND POLLUTES THE WATERWAYS!" oh dear, a troublemaker.
i said i would wash my hands in the ladies room with good old fashioned soap and that was an acceptable compromise.
the vast empty waiting room, probably 50' across stood between me and the soap. somehow it was ok for me to wheel myself to the ladies room, my hands gripping wheels that had recently been in the outside dirt and gravel. you can throw off a lot of viral particles in 50.' the covid woman accompanied me but did not touch the wheelchair. of course it would have been cleaner on my hands (and less work for me!) had she pushed me, but i guess she was only there to make sure i didn't go rogue.
she stood outside the ladies room while i ran a bit of cold water and shook my hands dry. does anyone actually use that awful soap?
everyone was satisfied with the charade and as far as i know, there were no deaths caused by my inadequate hand hygiene.