On April 28th, Scentsational Soaps and Candles, Inc. issued a voluntary recall of eight lots of scented hand sanitizers. Testing revealed that the products contained methanol (wood alcohol), benzene, and acetaldehyde.
The original April 28th recall included hand sanitizers from the Scentsational Black and White Collection, the Scentsational Photo Real Collection, and scented sanitizers from the Ulta Beauty Collection. On May 18th, the recall was expanded to include Goose Creek and Coco TKO hand sanitizers. Consumers, distributors, and retailers are advised to stop using, distributing, or selling these products and return them to the place of purchase immediately.
Methanol, benzene, and acetaldehyde are highly toxic chemicals that can cause a host of health problems, and may be fatal in serious cases.
Oral or dermal (skin) ingestion of methanol can result in vomiting, headache, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system, or death. Direct short-term exposure of the skin to benzene can cause tissue injury and irritation, and long-term exposure can cause leukemia. Prolonged dermal exposure to acetaldehyde likely causes erythema and dermatitis.