Quality concerns caused SHA to not use 350,000 litres of sanitizer provided by federal government: union | 24CA News

Quality issues prompted Saskatchewan to shelve greater than 350,000 litres of hand sanitizer that the federal authorities offered within the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to the president of a union representing health-care employees within the province. 

“In late May of 2020 we were advised that this industrial strength hand sanitizer was in the workplaces and it was immediately being pulled because a test had revealed it was unsafe for pregnant women or nursing mothers,” stated Barbara Cape, president of SEIU-West, in an interview this week.

After practically three years of being unused, the sanitizer has now expired. The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is on the lookout for an organization haul away 559 pallets of the expired product from a Regina warehouse by the tip of the month.

The particulars are a part of a tender issued in December by the provincial authorities.

The sanitizer was a portion of medical provides the Public Health Agency of Canada gave to provinces in the course of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when merchandise like hand sanitizer have been exhausting to acquire.

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In an announcement, the SHA didn’t straight reply to questions on why it did not use the federally offered sanitizer. Instead, the SHA stated that though it “very much appreciated” the PHAC cargo, the well being authority was in a position to safe a “more effective sanitizer supply.”

Health Canada didn’t reply when requested whether or not it was conscious of any high quality issues with the sanitizer distributed to Saskatchewan. It would solely say that merchandise acquired by the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile (NESS) endure high quality verification.

“If the NESS cannot confirm that the asset conforms to technical specifications, as regulated by Health Canada, the asset is not cleared for distribution to the provinces and territories,” stated Health Canada in an announcement.

The federal company did say that it had issued a public advisory saying sure hand sanitizers might pose well being dangers.

According to province’s tender paperwork, the expired sanitizers have been produced by Kingkey MBC Life Technology Group in Guangdong, China, Irving in Saint John and Triton Cleaning Products in Calgary. Those corporations’ merchandise will not be included in a public advisory issued by Health Canada.

Saskatchewan will not be the one province left with unused and now expired hand sanitizer.

Provinces throughout the nation have been left with tons of of hundreds of litres of expired product.

Joseph Blondeau, head of medical microbiology at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, stated many hand sanitizers include alcohol and/or hydrogen peroxide. Alcohol evaporates over time relying on how it’s saved and hydrogen peroxide degrades over time, changing into water, he stated. That means the efficacy of the product erodes over time.

The SHA estimated the disposal price of the sanitizer at greater than $100,000 and stated the method should adjust to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment’s hazardous substances laws.

Sanitizer will not be sometimes thought-about a hazardous waste, however the giant quantity of the product implies that it should be dealt with in a different way. For occasion, some landfills will not be permitted to simply accept giant portions of hand sanitizer, in response to the Ministry of Environment.