Hand Sanitisers & Aquariums?

[AilyNC]

Virapro Hand Sanitiser was just recalled here by our Dept. Of Agriculture & Foods. It had been supplied to schools but a recall issued. Prolonged use can cause skin irritation, headaches, eye irritation & upper respiratory system irritation.

Virapro Hand Sanitiser ingredients: Aqua, Alcohol Denat., Glycerin,Carbomer, Triethanolamine.

Canada has also recalled hand sanitizers.

Recall of certain hand sanitizers that may pose health risks (Part 1 - June 17, 2020 to March 24, 2021) - Canada.ca

healthycanadians.gc.ca

Edit to add ingredients.

 

[Essjay]

According to the safety data sheet, triethanolamine is "hazardous in the case of skin contact (permeator), eye contact, ingestion and inhalation. Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant)"

 

[AilyNC]

According to the safety data sheet, triethanolamine is "hazardous in the case of skin contact (permeator), eye contact, ingestion and inhalation. Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant)"

Yeah this is the ingredient that caused the recall and questions about why it was included at all. Our national health service & department of education had supply contracts for Virapro. Schools have shut over this until new Sanitiser can be sourced.

 

[kwi]

Yeah this is the ingredient that caused the recall and questions about why it was included at all. Our national health service & department of education had supply contracts for Virapro. Schools have shut over this until new Sanitiser can be sourced.

NHS in NI also have a load from the same supplier.

 

[StevenF]

All hand sanitizers have alcohol in them. Alcohol attacks and destroys the shell of the bacteria and viruses. Killing them quickly. The safest Alcohols are Ethanol, and Isopropanol Ethanol is in wine and is the only one that is safe tfor people to ingest. All alcohols should be considered to be toxic to all animals. But all tend to evaporate rapidly. At a minimum a good hand sanitizer should have a mix of alcohol and water. Very effective and when it drys it leaves no residue on your hands. Vodca is probably a very good hand sanitizer.

Currently Ethanol and Isoppropyl are currently in short supply while hand sanitizers demand is way up. So some were recalled because they contained methanol. And based on what I have seen many hand sanitizers on the market contain whatever the manufacture could find even if it is not approved for hand sanitizers.

Don’t think the brand of sanitiser has much bearing, maybe the cheap knock offs might be slightly less harmful for livestock but not by much imho.

This is a photo of back of my hand bottle of sanitiser, definitely no scientist and just about the only thing I understand is it’s 73% alcohol and has water in the ingredient listing.

View attachment 120325

Alcohol denat is denatured (poisoned) alcohol and Butyl Alcohol are the only alcohols I see and they are not the safe ones.. Glycerin is a moisurizer which is rsafe. Propylene Glycol is antifreeze. it doesn't evaporate and is considered safe at low does but is toxic at elevated levels. And as far as i can find Acrylates are classified as carcinogens andI don't see any reason for them in a hand sanitizer. I wouldn't use this product.

One bottle I has doesn't specify the alcohol but used on the smell I think it is isopropyl (80% of the volume) and the only other ingredients are glycerin and hydrogen peroxide (which also kills bacteria and viruses). I think it is safe for people but I don't know about fish.

But overall most infections appear to be due to inhalation of airborne virus particles. Infection by touch currently appears to occur rarely. So I only use it only when I am required to do so such as at work. Otherwise I just use soap with no fregrance or moisturizers.

 

[kwi]

All hand sanitizers have alcohol in them.

Not necessarily true, I have listed 3 common alternative active ingredients earlier in the thread and there are hand sanitisers specifically marketed as alcohol free, some are no more than essential oils........
Though it is agreed alcohol at 60% or more is the most effective.

 

[kwi]

Purell (Probably the most easily recognised brand.) and Germ-x are flying of the shelves in the states, neither contain alcohol, both are extremely toxic to fish.

 

[Gypsy Tart]

All of the above is very interesting and as a Newbie pet sitter with only a week's experience , I have a question: why would you put your hands into an aquarium other than clean the plants? If handling any of the accessories, why not just use disposable plastic surgical gloves ?

Moreover, shouldn't aquariums be covered if there are pets or young children in the home?

I may be wrong but did I read (on this forum) that aloe vera gel is a poison for fish? The wc that I purchased for the Betta that I cared for contains the former.

 

[itiwhetu]

I don't think the alcohol in these products is the problem,. you need to dig deeper into the ingredient list

 

[AilyNC]

All of the above is very interesting and as a Newbie pet sitter with only a week's experience , I have a question: why would you put your hands into an aquarium other than clean the plants? If handling any of the accessories, why not just use disposable plastic surgical gloves ?

Moreover, shouldn't aquariums be covered if there are pets or young children in the home?

I may be wrong but did I read (on this forum) that aloe vera gel is a poison for fish? The wc that I purchased for the Betta that I cared for contains the former.

Many reasons to put hands in a tank and to use disposable gloves each time in hugely wasteful.

Plus if I'm reaching to bottom of my tank to push a root tab in then my whole arm goes in. Sometimes a plant uproots & the tools aren't enough to fix it. So again my whole arm goes in.

My toddler isn't allowed near tanks unattended & he's still manage to through something in the tank with me there. He's quick. But it's learning for him to be careful. He has no impulse control do I've to be vigilant. However at 5+ there's logic & reasoning & impulse control. So children can interact more safely with the tanks. Feeding a fish isn't something you'd expect you trigger these deaths and it doesn't matter really that it was a child. It could've happened any of us. Not to rinse haves first, not to realise the hand sanitiser used earlier will cause a problem.

 

[Ch4rlie]

I have a question: why would you put your hands into an aquarium other than clean the plants?

Most fishkeepers tend to try not to put their hands in the aquariums but sometimes this is a necessity to do things such as cleaning the tank glass, maintaining plants, adding root tabs and moving / adjusting tank equipments.

But for the most part we do leave the tanks alone but when we do need to do something in the tank, we will normally wash our hands and arms first before putting into aquarium.

Moreover, shouldn't aquariums be covered if there are pets or young children in the home?

As a general rule most tanks are covered mainly to stop fish from jumping out of the tank, but also as a precaution to stop cats or pets and of course children from playing or doing something to tank but this is not always the case.

I have had several tanks in the past that were open tops simply because certain tanks come without lids or covers but also because I like open top tanks as well.

There is no hard and fast rule about having covers on tanks but I would think most fishkeepers will have lids or covers on their tanks.

 

[CassCats]

All of the above is very interesting and as a Newbie pet sitter with only a week's experience , I have a question: why would you put your hands into an aquarium other than clean the plants? If handling any of the accessories, why not just use disposable plastic surgical gloves ?

Moreover, shouldn't aquariums be covered if there are pets or young children in the home?

I may be wrong but did I read (on this forum) that aloe vera gel is a poison for fish? The wc that I purchased for the Betta that I cared for contains the former.

Looking into a child lock for the feeder lid for the future. Gotta figure that one out lol
Kid likes to interact with the fish and feed them from hand, but he didn't ask mom or dad first and went and did it while we were putting groceries away.
Kids and adults with adhd struggle with impulse control too. Worse for kids.

As for hands in... feeding, replanting plants (ive got hoplos who dig plants up daily), etc.





@Ch4rlie do you remember my post regarding my goldfish tote pond that had an issue no one could figure out? The fish were laying on the bottom, some red sores, bleeding around the eyes and mild popeye?
Given they weren't scaleless fish like the cories I lost in this case, it wasn't as fatal, but had effect, right? I think this may have also been the culprit to that case. Luckily everyone is back to normal now, though I lost 1 guppy and another guppy is permanently blind from the incident

But I think it may be related to this.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looking into a child lock for the feeder lid for the future. Gotta figure that one out lol
Kid likes to interact with the fish and feed them from hand, but he didn't ask mom or dad first and went and did it while we were putting groceries away.
Kids and adults with adhd struggle with impulse control too. Worse for kids.

As for hands in... feeding, replanting plants (ive got hoplos who dig plants up daily), etc.





@Ch4rlie do you remember my post regarding my goldfish tote pond that had an issue no one could figure out? The fish were laying on the bottom, some red sores, bleeding around the eyes and mild popeye?
Given they weren't scaleless fish like the cories I lost in this case, it wasn't as fatal, but had effect, right? I think this may have also been the culprit to that case. Luckily everyone is back to normal now, though I lost 1 guppy and another guppy is permanently blind from the incident

But I think it may be related to this.

I know about the dilemma of child proofing things and my son figures how to open these things quickly

Perhaps try something like this -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B086BJRRM9/?tag=

You could stick one end into the feeder cover the other end onto lid cover.

Since it’s a physical lock that I think 4-6 year olds may have trouble with since it’s requires some physical strength to operate which may work.

I’ve not tried it but looks like it may work.

Just a suggestion as am considering this myself for my new tank too to stop my boy doing the same thing!

And as for your logic about the recent problems you had with your tote that puzzled us all, and we thought could be down to the rotting bamboo roots but hand sanitiser could well be the case instead.

Well, it’s certainly likely to be one of the two, rotting bamboo root or hand sanitiser or even a combination of both.

Certainly food for thought for sure.

 

[CassCats]

I know about the dilemma of child proofing things and my son figures how to open these things quickly

Perhaps try something like this -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B086BJRRM9/?tag=

You could stick one end into the feeder cover the other end onto lid cover.

Since it’s a physical lock that I think 4-6 year olds may have trouble with since it’s requires some physical strength to operate which may work.

I’ve not tried it but looks like it may work.

Just a suggestion as am considering this myself for my new tank too to stop my boy doing the same thing!

And as for your logic about the recent problems you had with your tote that puzzled us all, and we thought could be down to the rotting bamboo roots but hand sanitiser could well be the case instead.

Well, it’s certainly likely to be one of the two, rotting bamboo root or hand sanitiser or even a combination of both.

Certainly food for thought for sure.

I think those lock types would work, since it's just a basic lift up lid!

 

[seangee]

Arghhh - think I fell foul of this. Who said COVID won't affect our fish.
When I came back from my break this week the fish room (AKA Sean's office) had a really bad smell. The cause was lots of dead dwarf chain loach (scaleless and very sensitive). After removing the dead bodies I changed as much water as I could and have done 2 75% changes since. I have been wracking my brains as to what could have been the cause and now this makes sense.

The day I left I had loads of Amazon deliveries and also changed the water in all the tanks - that tank was first on the list. Today is the first time I have seen the survivors out and about behaving as normal. They have been in deep hiding mode for the last 3 days. I know for certain that I have 3 survivors (out of 14 ) but I am not disturbing the wood to get an accurate head count as I suspect they could do without the additional stress. Thankfully the microdevario kubotai seem unaffected. Plants are growing out of the tank with all that extra ammonium (its an acidic tank), but thankfully I had them to soak it up.