Expired hand sanitizer sent by Health Canada pulled in Sask. over safety concerns: SEIU president

More than 350,000 litres of expired hand sanitizer sent to Saskatchewan from Health Canada at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 was pulled over safety concerns.

That’s according to Barbara Cape, the president of the Service Employees International Union West (SEIU-West).

“This particular product came up in the context of occupational health and safety issues in late May of 2020. It was a technical grade sanitizer that was sent out from Health Canada all across the country,” Cape said Monday.

“There was a subsequent study done that identified that it was not recommended for use for pregnant or nursing women.”

According to product documents on the SaskTenders website, all of the hand sanitizer is listed as either Category 2 or Category 3 hazardous materials. Side effects listed on the products’ labels include drowsiness or dizziness, and eye irritation.

The hand sanitizers came from Shanuei, China and from Guangdong, China via New Zealand, along with Canadian-made products from New Brunswick and Calgary.

Cape said almost as soon as the products were delivered to Saskatchewan, they were shelved.

“I think it was less than two weeks,” she said.

While other products were sourced by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the recommendation was for employees to simply use warm water and soap for disinfection purposes.

Cape explained the sanitizer was used as a stop-gap measure at the beginning of the pandemic. In early 2020, she said, there was a lot of “catching up” in order to make sure health-care facilities had PPE and sanitizing products.

“It’s unfortunate the product is expired and has to be disposed of, but I think (SHA officials) were erring on the side of caution in order to keep people safe at the time,” she added. “If it’s a technical grade rather than a daily use hand sanitizer, I think it was probably the best decision possible at the time.”

A public tender was issued in mid-December by the SHA requesting a company either recycle or dispose of the massive amount of hand sanitizer.

The cost to do so is more than $100,000.

CKOM has reached out to Health Canada requesting information on whether the province or the federal government will pick up the disposal costs, whether safety testing was completed on the products prior to their country-wide distribution, and the cost of obtaining and sending out the hand sanitizer. A response hadn’t been received by the time of publication.