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DIY sanitisers “recipes” must be banned
I do not often get into philosophical questions, but today
my annoyance reached its peak. Every single formulation forum I attend is
flooded with questions on how to formulate hand sanitisers. Every repackager
from whom I purchase (and I purchase from UK, EU and the US) promotes anything
that can barely gel alcohol (from sepiplus 400 to poor grades of xanthan) on
their home page. And obviously, everyone is out of carbomers of all sorts and
kinds. Now, here is the thing I am all for freedom of speech. I am all for
personal responsibility. But shouldn’t people who post DIY natural sanitiser recipes
(that word makes me cringe), with aloe juice and whatever nonsense their
retarded mind suggests to have antimicrobial “power,” be held accountable? Before
I would say that if someone reads on the internet that bleach helps to lose
weight, drinks it and dies.. Darwin Award, please. But in this state of
emergency, when even educated people with a good level of scepticism start
getting a little crazy and looking for a refuge in whatever fairy tale gives
them peace of mind I think something should be done to those who spread this
dangerous information. If it’s on YouTube – video should be demonetised, Facebook – the
post should be blocked. I wonder, what do you guys think. Am I overly dramatic or it’s a big deal
indeed? -
11 Replies
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I agree it’s a problem. I’m not sure if banning them would be effective however. Things are shared just as easily on social media as they are through email. But certainly big media outlets should not be propagating these formulas.
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To me it feels a bit like playing whack-a-mole. I understand that people want to help themselves and I like to support that in general, but I do wish that those who are considered authorities didn’t fuel this fire in irresponsible ways. Not quite at the point where I would be willing to unleash the censoring bots but I understand the sentiment.
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It’s the same with masks. Everyone who knows how to stitch two layers of tissue together creates re-usable masks for horrendous prices. If only stupidity would hurt not just the people around but the idiots themselves…
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@Pharma, I have exactly the same problem with it! If people want to make a sanitiser that doesn’t work and get sick, it’s their choice. The problems start when then persuade others to do it.
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Here is an example. https://formulabotanica.com/natural-hand-sanitiser/
They put together a “natural” sanitiser that kills bacteria so well that it needs a preservative itself. Great. They also included this disclaimer:
“Disclaimer: in some parts of the world, hand sanitisers are viewed as pharmaceutical / medicinal products. The formulation provided in this blog post is for home-use only and has not been tested for efficacy”.An individual from Cypris in one of their FB groups said that it’s their “best seller”. They make a sanitiser based on that formula and sell it to the public, marketing it as safe and natural. What bugs me the most in this story, this Formula Botanica isn’t some DIY blog with 3.5 subscribers. I was shocked to see an article on them in the April edition of Personal Care Magazine within the In-Cosmetics Global section (page 18 if anyone is interested). A reputable professional magazine writes about them, and a serious professional event partners with them. I think it’s outrageous.
By the way, I have no interest and completely independent here. I don’t do workshops, I don’t take clients, I don’t sell my formulas. And although I have 96% ethanol, understand the difference between %v/v and %w/w, know the specific gravity of ethanol, can do the calculations and bothered to read WHO recommendation, I wouldn’t give a sanitiser that I made to my neighbour or to a friend. It should be left to professionals.
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@Agate, I agree censoring is evil. This situation is just frustrating. How many people would bother reading WHO recommendations? Not many I guess, but much more would use ready formula. People enjoy cooking and there are much more chances that someone repeats it when it’s written in a format “1 cup of alcohol, 2 cups of aloe etc”. And some of them would think, “I don’t have alcohol, I will replace it with vodka, it has alcohol too”. So even if the DIY formula measured in cups was written correctly and has 60% v/v of alcohol, it doesn’t mean that people will reproduce it right.
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What people reproduce is a personal problem. Anyone can use what WHO recommended and replace anything with anything
In my opinion, the biggest problems are:
1. Offering untested formulations (like the link mentioned).
2. People without knowledge selling sanitizers to others. -
ngarayeva001 said:@Agate, I agree censoring is evil. This situation is just frustrating. How many people would bother reading WHO recommendations? Not many I guess, but much more would use ready formula. People enjoy cooking and there are much more chances that someone repeats it when it’s written in a format “1 cup of alcohol, 2 cups of aloe etc”. And some of them would think, “I don’t have alcohol, I will replace it with vodka, it has alcohol too”. So even if the DIY formula measured in cups was written correctly and has 60% v/v of alcohol, it doesn’t mean that people will reproduce it right.
Honestly, I find the best approach if I see friends posting such stuff is to advise them that they need minimum 60-70% alcohol in the finished product - using vodka at say 40% means there is only 24% ethanol - barely enough to keep the product self preserving.
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I understand your point @Herbnerd but often alcohol is supplied as %v/v. So if they use, say, 70% IPA which is supplied as 70%v/v it will only work is they use it almost neat. What I noticed people love adding unnecessary fluff like aloe and who knows what else “to make it theirs”. And btw another thing I noticed, most people can’t get their head around %. That’s why most of “recipes” are written in cups.. I saw a good article on that topic. Let me dig it out.
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ngarayeva001 said:
“Disclaimer: in some parts of the world, hand sanitisers are viewed as pharmaceutical / medicinal products. The formulation provided in this blog post is for home-use only and has not been tested for efficacy”.
I’m glad the FDA removed the temporary guidance allowing non-drug manufacturers to make hand sanitizer. I saw a lot of these “natural” DIY sanitizer recipes floating around and I wished I could do something about it.
I think it’s interesting that they changed the article almost a year after posting it. Maybe they got a lot of backlash related to their excuse for a hand sanitizer. The note at the bottom of the page now reads:
“Please note that this post, first published on 5th March, 2020, was updated in January 2021 to clarify that the formulations presented here are classed as hand cleansers and not sanitisers.”
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@ngarayeva001, I agree with you. Unfortunately these days influencers (DIY) are following in the footsteps of the Kardashians and the mother of DYI Martha Stuart for riches and fame. There have been many recalls of hand sanitizers over methanol during covid. This probably worried a lot of people. This issue made it a good target for DYI with its own unfortunate consequence.
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