This is a potential warning to those of you that have purchased the Baby Yoda Hand Sanitizer manufactured by Best Brands Consumer Products. An independent study by pharmacy and lab testing company Valisure, has indicated elevated levels of benzene in several hand sanitizers, including the Baby Yoda one.

Benzene is a known carcinogen and can cause blood disorders and Leukemia, with chronic exposure.

After discovering that some of the hand sanitizers on the market contain the carcinogen, Valisure is petitioning the FDA to investigate further.

How did this happen?

According to Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the early days of the pandemic led to relaxed standards on the benzene levels allowed in the liquid hand sanitizers as the need for the product was greater than the supply.

“There was an effort to really increase hand sanitizers and the availability because a lot of people were purchasing them and supply was running low.”

People bought the products not knowing that they were potentially harmful.

Bloomberg has listed the brands that exceeded the limits:

Valisure independently reviewed 260 products and found that 21 products from 15 brands had ” tested above the FDA interim limit. The top three tested between six- to eight-times higher than allowed.” Most sanitizers passed the standards, but about 8% had levels above the limit and about 1% were up to 8X over the limit.

Included in the brands that were above the FDA interim limit were the Star Wars Mandalorian Baby Yoda and sanitizer. It contained almost double the acceptable amounts.

According to CBS News the manufacturer would not respond but the Walt Disney Company did. They have instructed Best Brands to remove the product until they have independently tested it themselves. 

Keep in mind that the people most impacted would be those using it often and according to Dr. Daniel Teitelbaum, from Colorado School of Public Health, those who wear gloves with sanitizer could be the ones that are impacted the most.

“If you’re not wearing gloves over them, the risk is quite low because your skin is warm, you use that, the benzene will evaporate quite rapidly,” he said, adding that threat mostly is for people with “special risks. It’s a lot of health care personnel. It’s a lot of cleaning and sanitation people. … The longer you use it, the greater the risk.”

You can read the Valisure report for yourself HERE.

I’m not seeing an actual recall on the item, although I could have simply missed it, but Disney has asked the manufacturer to remove the product.  After it’s been evaluated by the FDA and Disney that might change.  For now stop using it!

Sources: CBS News, Bloomberg, a friend