Quality of Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer that sole in Thailand 2021

Abstract

Background: One of the measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is personal hygiene, especially frequent hand washing with the use of alcohol-based products for hand sanitizer. This makes such a product essential for a new normal way of life. As a result, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health has relaxed control on alcohol-based hand sanitizer products ranging from medical devices to cosmetics. However, it is possible that the sale of products during this crisis may result in an alcohol concentration of less than 70 % v/v, which would be below the safety standard.

Objective: To investigate the quality of alcohol-based hand sanitizer sold in Thailand in 2021.

Methods: It was a descriptive research. Samples of alcohol-based hand sanitizer products were sampled at sources sold and nationwide based on probability theory and selected at convenience between June and August 2021. A sample size of 388 samples was set at a 95% confidence level. The stratification of the sampling was divided onto five regions: Central, North, Eastern, Northeast, and South. Then, randomly collected at 12 Medical Science Centers nationwide in a total of 31 provinces, a total of 411 samples were collected, with a proportion of gel and spray samples 3:2. Laboratory tests were then conducted to determine the type and concentration of four alcohols, namely Ethanol, Isopropanol, N-propanol, and Methanol with gas chromatography techniques compared with the requirements of the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand announcement.

Results: The 411 samples of alcohol-based hand hygiene products that were randomly distributed across the country-280 gels and sprays and 131 samples-were found to be non-standard to a degree of 37.5%, compared with gels and sprays by 41.1 and 29.8 %, respectively.

The highest percentage of the products not meet the standard was found in the Central Region 57.8%. When considering the sales channels of the products, the highest percentage of products not meet the standard was found in market (56.3%). For the type and concentration of alcohol used in the products, most alcohol used was ethanol, detected 86.1% with the range of 2.5-89.3% (v/v). The other alcohols approved to be used were isopropanol, detected 4.1% with the range of 2.3 - 83.8% (v/v). Furthermore, the use of the mixture of more than one type of alcohol was observed. Moreover, two sample in the North-East Region detected mixture of methanol and other alcohol. Interestingly, 0.7% (three samples) sold in the Northern and Central Region were detected with only methanol; the detected concentration were 58.0, 65.0 and 70.6% (v/v) which was a gel product. In addition, 0.5%d (two samples) of methanol used in combination with other alcohols was observed in the Northeast, which was not allowed by law because it was harmful to health.

Conclusions: The result revealed that there were still high numbers of the products that did not meet the standard. The product was found to have a non-standard alcohol type and concentration and was in gel form rather than spray. Consequently, the manufacturers should take care of manufacturing process management by using legally approved alcohols and focus on social responsibility. For the government agencies that controls and regulates the standard of this product should concentrate on public communication and take action seriously, continually in monitoring the quality of the products, and against manufacturers who deliberately violate the regulation in order to build trust among consumers.