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The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

wired.com

151–160 of 310 posts

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#151
post #76
post #3

Tl;dr: ArtNaturals made hand sanitizer with very high levels of benzene (a carcinogen) and after a fire and runoff into the Dominguez Channel, produced a bunch of hydrogen sulfide (the "rotten eggs" smelling gas). When the FDA reimposed pre-pandemic sanitizer rules, companies were forced to dispose of the crap they produced under the lax rules. Some tried to do so by giving it away to schools or illegally dumping it…

I'm curious, where does the benzene come from? Isn't hand sanitizer just ethanol with scents added, and maybe a gelling agent?

Fuel-grade ethanol.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#152

In all of these posts there is a strong 'what were they thinking' reaction. - remember hindsight. At the time, how were they supposed to know, by looking into their crystal ball? It was a fast, dynamically changing situation, everyone was getting sick, who a the time could say 'yeah, people are dying, but YOLO, no need to sanitize your hands.' Lot of freaking armchair quarterbacks in the 'lets criticize the medical c…

It was fast and dynamic only because the rulebook was thrown out and created on the fly. There was precedent and strategy. Hindsight is being accurately used to review what happened and correctly criticize.

The same would happen in the technical community if there were a breach and procedures were ignored and made up based on hunches. The medical community does not get a pass.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#153
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, where does the benzene come from? Isn't hand sanitizer just ethanol with scents added, and maybe a gelling agent?

Educated guess: From its use as an azeotrope breaker in the distillation of ethanol from water. Normally its impossible to achieve greater than ~95% ethanol from an ethanol water mixture, but it is possible to achieve ~100% ethanol from a water/benzene/ethanol mixture[0]. [0]There of course have been methods invented which do not involve benzene.

Makes sense. And benzene is fine for ethanol you’re mixing with gasoline.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#154
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I am a little uneasy about the sanitizer I bought. I walked into Walmart one day and they had these giant bottles of liquid hand sanitizer with a 80% alcohol content and it works great and doesn’t leave a residue. It was on for 25cents a bottle when normally something that size would sell for about $8. I couldn’t believe they were getting rid of it for so cheap so bout about 100 bottles and have been using it for…

Chemists used to wash their hands in benzene!

Doctors used to smoke cigarettes.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#155
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I’m just lucky. Or maybe I’m just used to being uncomfortable from the decades of fighting migraines sans modern medicine. But I pretty easily wore N95s at work for entire shifts at times. Yes there are annoyances but I’ll take it over even getting the common cold or flu.

Why did you fight them without medicine? More importantly how did you do it? I have tinnitus and almost all painkillers are ototoxic (I.e. they can make tinnitus worse). So I’m always in a catch 22 when it comes to treating my migraines.

There wasn’t much that worked well especially back then. CGRP blockers are a new thing. Some of that time was college and they don’t really do good healthcare for students. Much of the rest was unemployed and no healthcare. Then there’s the doctors/neuros who told me men don’t get migraines.

Have you tried ginger? Maybe triphala (amla, ginger, and turmeric powder altogether). Ginger supposedly acts as a cgrp blocker for migraines, and just generally lowering inflammation might make stuff less apt to being triggered. Tinnitus does sound like quite the curse though.

I’ve also wondered whether the active noise cancelling headphones help? Just being used to block noise and not play anything back. The real question there is whether quiet actively helps or hurts the condition. Though it feels a little like a pressure turning on when my ANCs activate and I’ve wondered how that’d interact with tinnitus.

Otherwise I’d probably default to making a painfully tedious diary of my days and log any/all tinnitus events. I’d include noises, foods, time of day, weather, anything/everything. That’d be looking for environmental or similar factors/triggers. Though it’s a hair in your ear drum or something like that and honestly tough to imagine what would help.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#156
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, repurposing Everclear got me through the pandemic. I cut it with Diet Coke, and a splash of lime, and drank it to help sanitize my system of coronavirus particles. Kept me COVID-free. I think. I don’t really remember much of the past 3 years for some reason, drinking that every day…but no nagging cough!

How's your eyesight?

Really good. Came in handy for reading my liver biopsy novella!

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#157

Just one aspect of the huge, tragicomic waste that resulted from the medical establishment's position that airborne transmission couldn't be real because it reminded everyone too much of miasma theory. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ina.13070

"Couldn't be real" is a complete misinterpretation of the paper. The "medical establishment" asserts that many diseases are transmitted by aerosol (ie very small droplets), but many more - and especially those similar to covid-19 - are transmitted by larger droplets, which travel less far. This isn't anything trivial as your comment makes it look like.

> especially those similar to covid-19 - are transmitted by larger droplets, which travel less far.

The medical establishment believed that (some may still believe). But it is not true.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd9149

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#158
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the source of the benzene and methanol might have been from hand sanitizer manufacturers buying raw input feedstocks (ethanol and glycerol) containing methanol and benzene from dubious sources. If that's the case, then making your own hand sanitizer by buying ethanol and glycerol from dubious (random online) sources (that Wired actually goes so far as to directly link to) would also put you at risk of in…

They recommended buying isopropyl alcohol. They did not recommend buying fuel grade ethanol.

That's right. But the time, isopropyl alcohol was expensive and unavailable enough that people were getting into that business too. And the fastest movers, and most successful, would have been the hustlers.

Awhile back, I noticed that a local liquor distillery was also selling hand sanitizer. I didn't think about it at the time, but I guess that would probably have been a pretty reliable source.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#159
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I live in the Bay Area, and my neighbors still do this shit .

What amazes me is that some people choose to continue 100% masking for various reasons, but wear ineffective or poor fitting cloth masks or generic flat surgical masks with huge gaps, when comfortable and effective N95s from name brands are readily and inexpensively available. Or they just chin-diaper.

During peak pandemic when masks were required, I saw a lot of people wearing their masks below their noses. I assumed it was some sort of protest thing.

Now that masks are no longer required, I still see people doing that. So presumably they're just ignorant.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're overthinking this, especially as to hidden psychological motivations. The primary reason some people still mask is very simple: For anyone who follows basic science, not what the crowd is doing -- N95 masks in enclosed / crowded situations are still a good idea, especially for those of a certain age. Many people continue to wear useless (or only marginally) useful masks, and in non-crowded situations (…

"The basic science" says that masking protects other people if I am infected with a comparatively high viral load and I am prone to sneezing or coughing unprotected. The basic science tells me to stay home when that happens because I am not fit for public appearances. Normal people stay home when they're sick, they don't infect others, and the basic science takes care of that just fine. If crazy people want to follow…

It also says that it does protect you from other people's loads, albeit imperfectly.

However everyone is tired of masking now, and prefers to forget this.

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