Some disinfectants sold by many e-commerce platforms contain toxic substance methanol. 10 products purchased by surging news were submitted for inspection, and 8 products were detected with high concentration of methanol Two year old Xiao Ning (a pseudonym) swallowed the disinfectant by mistake, but methanol was detected in his blood; Subsequently, after testing the disinfectant, it was found that the methanol content was as high as 97.2%.
In the third year of the global COVID-19, disinfection supplies have already become indispensable daily necessities. Alcohol (ethanol) disinfectants are often used for household disinfection because they are relatively safe.
However, through the methanol poisoning incident in Xiaoning, the surging news investigation found that some so-called alcohol disinfectants sold on Taobao, pinduoduo and jd.com even used toxic methanol as ethanol.
Methanol is a dangerous chemical, which can enter the human body through respiratory tract, skin mucous membrane and digestive tract, resulting in poisoning. Accidental ingestion of 30ml may lead to death.
When the reporter wanted to trace the relevant manufacturers, he found that the manufacturers and places of production marked on the outer packaging of these products were all fictitious, and even the license number of "Xiaozi" was stolen.
Surging news also purchased 10 disinfectants (agents) from the above three e-commerce platforms. Together with the samples eaten by Xiaoning Institute and the samples given by another manufacturer, a total of 12 disinfectants (agents) samples were sent to Shanghai textile group testing standards Co., Ltd. for testing.
The test results showed that 10 samples contained methanol, of which 7 samples contained methanol ranging from 88.5% to 97.2%, almost pure methanol, which seriously threatened the lives and health of consumers.
Another "xiao'antang" brand medical disinfectant purchased from Jingdong and nominally produced by Nanyang kangzhiyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. also detected that the methanol content was as high as 47.70%.
A 2-year-old child was taken to hospital by mistake
On November 26 last year, Mr. Luo, who lives in Yubei District, Chongqing, purchased a 2-liter barrel of disinfectant through the "pinduoduo" app in an online store called "light disinfection supplies Museum".
Mr. Luo's online order for disinfectants. Picture provided by the interviewee
"The information written on the online shop is: 98 ° industrial alcohol fire therapy cupping alcohol lamp cupping fuel 2L wholesale high concentration 95 ° barrels of ethanol." Mr. Luo said that it was only 15.8 yuan to buy such a barrel of disinfectant online, including mail.
After receiving the goods, Mr. Luo used less than 500ml before and after, mainly to clean and disinfect the furniture. No problems were found during the use.
"Baijia" brand disinfectant bought online by Mr. Luo. In addition to the signature, the pictures in this article are all by surging journalist lvxinwen
The accident occurred on February 9 this year. Mr. Luo told the surging news that his child Xiao Ning is over 2 years old this year. Since he and his wife are working, especially his wife, who works in the hospital, the children are usually taken care of by his grandmother alone. That day, when Xiao Ning was playing on the balcony, she unscrewed the cap of the disinfectant bottle and took a sip, about 3ml, while her grandmother was not paying attention.
After drinking, Xiao Ning burst into tears. Grandma came to have a look at the news and found that Xiao Ning had been spitting out. She looked at the disinfectant and guessed that Xiao Ning had drunk the disinfectant by mistake. She hurriedly contacted her son and daughter-in-law.
Mr. Luo said: "at that time, I thought that the disinfectant was nothing more than high alcohol. Generally speaking, the methanol content was very low, but for the sake of insurance, I rushed to the hospital and handed it over to the doctor."
Mr. Luo's son Xiaoning was sent to hospital for treatment after taking disinfectant by mistake. Picture provided by the interviewee
After Xiaoning was sent to the hospital, the doctor took measures to induce vomiting and gastric lavage, and analyzed Xiaoning's blood gas. The results showed that the glucose index in Xiaoning's blood was higher than the reference value, while the carbon dioxide partial pressure, oxygen partial pressure, bicarbonate concentration, total carbon dioxide and actual alkali residue were lower than the reference value.
Mr. Luo said that the doctor has been asking Xiao Ning what she is drinking and how high the alcohol concentration is, so that she can "suit the remedy to the case" for treatment. "The composition and content of a regular disinfectant should be indicated. As a result, the disinfectant we bought had no such information on the package.".
Claims to be an alcohol disinfectant, turns out to be methanol
According to the surging news, the disinfectant purchased online by Mr. Luo is nominal as "top 100", and the package is marked as "Shandong Xintai top 100 industry and Trade Co., Ltd." and the production date is November 10, 2021. In addition, the package is also marked with executive standards, specifications, health license number, product description, scope of application and precautions.
Among them, the column of product description reads: "the main effective component of this product is disinfectant, which can kill various pathogenic microorganisms. It has the advantages of no corrosion and easy to use." The scope of application includes: "foot therapy, beauty care and other health care industries. It is widely used for cleaning various mechanical surfaces such as printers, cameras and lenses. It can also be used for various dilutions such as furniture shellac."
In order to find out the composition of the liquid Xiao Ning drank, Mr. Luo hurried to contact wuyanzhao, the person in charge of the sales online shop "Qingjie disinfection supplies Museum". Mr. Luo said that wuyanzhao first called the disinfectant 98 ℃ alcohol, "but the next day he changed his mouth to say that the methanol content was more than 50%, and later he said he didn't know."
After learning that the disinfectant may contain methanol, Mr. Luo hurried to take blood for the child. The test results showed that on February 10, the day after Xiaoning mistakenly drank disinfectant, the methanol content in Xiaoning's blood was less than 2 mg /100 ml.
Mr. Luo said that he spent a lot of effort to ask his friends to help him test the disinfectant purchased online. The test results made Mr. Luo very worried: the methanol content in the samples submitted for inspection exceeded 95%: "to put it bluntly, this is not a disinfectant at all. What wuyanzhao sold me was actually methanol pretending to be a disinfectant."
Data show that methanol is a colorless, transparent, volatile and flammable liquid, which is often used as an organic solvent or additive. Methanol can enter human body through respiratory tract, skin mucosa and digestive tract, resulting in poisoning. The early manifestations of acute methanol poisoning were central nervous system damage and metabolic acidosis. Dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting and central nervous system excitation symptoms can occur, which are manifested as disorientation, excitement, irritability and delirium. The later stage showed central nervous system depression, coma and visual impairment.
Can methanol be used to make disinfectants? According to the list of disinfectant raw materials and prohibited and restricted substances, methanol is not included in the list of raw materials; The raw materials of disinfectants used to disinfect human body, medical devices and drinking water shall meet the quality requirements of the Pharmacopoeia of the people's Republic of China (2015 Edition), food grade, medical grade, or chemically pure or above. Industrial grade raw materials are prohibited.
Zhang Yuyi, from the pharmacy department of Dongfang Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University, said in an interview with people.com that methanol not only can not disinfect, but also has strong toxicity to human body, so direct contact should be avoided. Otherwise, it will be oxidized into formaldehyde and formic acid (formic acid) which are more toxic than methanol in human metabolism. Drinking alcohol containing methanol can cause blindness, liver disease and even death. If you drink more than 4ml by mistake, you will have poisoning symptoms. If you drink more than 10ml, you will become blind due to permanent damage to the optic nerve. If you drink more than 30ml, you will die.
Mr. Luo told surging news that on June 6, he received the notification of case filing made by the high tech Zone Branch of Linyi Public Security Bureau. The notice shows that Shandong Qingjie Trading Co., Ltd. is suspected of illegal operation. The Bureau believes that it meets the conditions for filing a case and has now filed a case for investigation. The signing time is may24,2022.
A few days earlier, Mr. Luo received a telephone call from the Linyi police to inform him that the police had tested the disinfectant samples sent by Mr. Luo, and the test results showed that the methanol content in the disinfectant was 98.01%.
Methanol disinfectant is available on multiple e-commerce platforms
A health system professional told the surging news: "this barrel of disinfectant (bought by Mr. Luo) at least can be seen from the packaging that it does not meet the specifications."
According to the person, Article 7 of the specification for the management of disinfection product label instructions requires that the minimum sales package label of disinfectant should be marked with the following contents: product name, product hygiene license number, manufacturer (name, address), manufacturer hygiene license number, main active ingredients and their content, production date, validity period / production batch number and limited use date, etc. "Baijia, a disinfectant, has no key information about the main active ingredients and their content. In addition, the address of the manufacturer is also very vague. These are all problematic."
The source pointed out that according to the provisions on health and safety evaluation of disinfection products, disinfection products are divided into three categories. The first category is disinfection products that have high risks and need to be strictly managed to ensure safety and effectiveness, including high-level disinfectants and disinfection devices for medical devices, disinfectants and sterilization devices, skin and mucous membrane disinfectants, biological indicators and chemical indicators of sterilization effect; The second category is moderate risk disinfection products that need to be strengthened management to ensure safety and effectiveness, including disinfectants, disinfection instruments, chemical indicators other than the first category products, as well as packaging materials of sterilized articles with sterilization marks and anti (anti -) bacterial preparations. "For class I and class II disinfection products, in addition to obtaining the hygiene license, the manufacturer shall also obtain the qualification of inspection report and health safety evaluation for the disinfection products it produces."
Through inquiry on the national disinfection product online filing information service platform, surging news found that the manufacturer's health license number "lwxzz (2013) No. 0001" printed on the package of "Baijia" brand disinfectant belongs to Xintai Huayuan medical and Health Products Co., Ltd., that is, Shandong Xintai Baijia industry and Trade Co., Ltd. has not obtained the relevant health license.
In addition, no registration information of "Shandong Xintai Baijia industry and Trade Co., Ltd." can be found on the national enterprise credit information publicity system.
The aforementioned person said that based on the above information, it can be concluded that this "Baijia" brand disinfectant is a counterfeit product.
Surging news found on pinduoduo, Taobao, jd.com and other e-commerce platforms that pinduoduo still sells the same "top 100" disinfectant, and one of the stores even marked the object of use of the product as "skin" in the product details of the disinfectant; Similar disinfectants are sold in Taobao and JD stores.
The site visit found that the factory name and address were false
Where do these "disinfectants" containing methanol come from?
Through tianyancha, surging news found that the business unit of the online store "Qingjie disinfection supplies Museum" is Shandong Qingjie Trading Co., Ltd. and the legal representative is wuyanzhao. Its business scope includes the sale of medical supplies and equipment, disinfectants, class I medical devices, daily necessities, etc. its registered address is the east area of Tianxiang garden, Hedong District, Linyi City, Shandong Province.
Shandong Linyi "rundi Yuyuan" community.
In addition, according to the logistics information, the disinfectant received by Mr. Luo was collected by Linyi Ruisi service department (hereinafter referred to as "Ruisi service department") of Yunda express Shandong main urban area company. In other words, with accurate logistics information, the barrel of disinfectant is shipped from Linyi.
On March 2, the surging news came to the east area of Tianxiang garden, Hedong District, Linyi City, and found no trace of Shandong Qingjie Trading Co., Ltd. Ruisi service department staff said that they received a lot of pieces every day. In addition, they couldn't remember clearly because of the long time.
The surging news noted that in addition to Shandong Qingjie Trading Co., Ltd., wuyanzhao also registered Shandong Jiekang medical instruments Co., Ltd. in Linyi and served as the legal representative of the company. The registered address of the company is xidun village, Linxi 12th Road, high tech Zone, Linyi city. Its business scope includes disinfectants (excluding dangerous, monitored and precursor chemicals). The reporter went to xidun village, but also failed to find Shandong Jiekang Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. However, the registered place of the company is less than 10 kilometers away from Ruisi service department.
Wuyanzhao said that the "top 100" brand disinfectant he sold in the online store was not purchased and resold from manufacturers or dealers, but "issued orders on behalf" through the backstage. "The actual delivery is not from me. I just make a difference." Wuyanzhao said that he could not find out which online store was really delivering goods to Mr. Luo.
The gate of Shandong Xintai medical device industrial park.
On March 4, the surging news came to Xintai City, Tai'an City, 120 kilometers away from Linyi city. The production address shown on the package of "Baijia" disinfectant was here. However, there is no "Xintai Industrial Park", but there are "Xintai economic and Technological Development Zone", "Xintai Chemical Industrial Park" and "Xintai medical device Industrial Park". Through field visits, surging news failed to find the address of Shandong Xintai Baijia industry and Trade Co., Ltd. in Xintai.
Zhouchangli, the legal representative of Xintai Huayuan medical and Health Products Co., Ltd., which holds the license of "lwxzz (2013) No. 0001", told surging news that the company has produced and sold disinfection products in Xintai since 2013. "We usually import the edible alcohol made of corn from the northeast, and then produce plastic barrels for sub packaging and sales." Zhouchangli said that Xintai has sixorseven manufacturers of disinfection products. "I have never heard of a factory called PARKnSHOP or Shengyuan."
Zhou Changli said that he knew that there were illegal businesses using the company's license number in the market, but "people outside didn't fake our factory's products, so they didn't take it seriously. Moreover, the barrels we produced have anti-counterfeiting marks."
According to the information on the national disinfection product online filing information service platform, "lwxzz (2013) No. 0001" license belongs to Xintai Huayuan medical and Health Products Co., Ltd.
High content of methanol was detected in 10 of 12 disinfection products
While looking for manufacturers, surging news also purchased 10 different disinfection products, including "Baijia" brand disinfectant, "Shengliyuan" brand disinfectant, "baixinsheng" brand disinfectant, "xinlijie" brand disinfectant and "Lekang" brand 95% alcohol disinfectant, through e-commerce platforms such as pinduoduo, Taobao and Jingdong, totaling 10 barrels (bottles).
It should be noted that the reporter bought different disinfectants through different businesses of pinduoduo and Taobao, and the sales link was clearly marked as ethanol. What he received was an industrial detergent produced by the same enterprise on the same day.
The reporter purchased the "PARKnSHOP" brand disinfectant through a shop on Taobao, but the "Shengliyuan" brand disinfectant was sent. However, the packaging of the disinfectant is highly similar to that of the "PARKnSHOP" brand disinfectant. Except that the brand, specification, production date and manufacturer are different, the other information is completely consistent, even the font, size and color are not bad.
Disinfection products submitted for inspection.
In addition, among the 10 disinfection products, "PARKnSHOP", "Shengliyuan" and "xinlijie" are also produced in Xintai; "Shengliyuan", "baixinsheng" and "Baijia" all falsely used the license number obtained by Xintai Huayuan medical and Health Products Co., Ltd.
In order to find out the methanol content in these disinfection products, surging news sent the above 10 barrels (bottles) of disinfection products, together with a bottle of 75% medical alcohol presented by the manufacturer and the disinfectant purchased by Mr. Luo, to Shanghai textile group testing standards Co., Ltd. for testing.
Test results.
The test results showed that among the 12 tested samples, only two samples, such as "Lekang" 95% alcohol disinfectant and "xinlijie" 95% medical alcohol, did not detect methanol; Methanol was detected in the remaining 10 samples, including 5 samples with methanol content higher than 90%, 2 samples with methanol content of 80%-89% and 3 samples with methanol content lower than 50%. The "Baijia" disinfectant (produced on October 2, 2021) with the highest methanol content is 97.2%. (see the table below for details)
According to Dr. dingruoyao, director of the technology research and Development Department of Shanghai textile group testing standards Co., Ltd., even according to the relevant national standards for industrial alcohol, the methanol content cannot exceed 2000 mg / L, but the methanol content of the samples tested this time is up to 60000 mg / L, 30 times higher than the standard. "And the requirements for methanol content of disinfection products are stricter than those of industrial alcohol."
Methanol was also detected in disinfection products produced by enterprises with complete licenses
It is worth mentioning that although Nanyang kangzhiyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. obtained the license and publicized the test report and health safety evaluation of "xiao'antang" brand medical disinfectant, 47.7% of methanol was still detected in the samples submitted for inspection (Note: the sales online store is the flagship store of Jingdong "Shuiguang micro vision pharmacy").
In order to understand the relevant situation, on March 8, surging journalists came to Wancheng District, Nanyang City, Henan Province. According to the address marked on the medical disinfectant bottle, the reporter found "Nanyang kangzhiyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd." in Ligang village, huangtaigang Town, about 18 kilometers away from Nanyang city. The factory building of the company is located beside S234 provincial road, with the iron door locked and the couplet of Spring Festival attached to the door. There is no company name. Seen from the roadside, it is more like a residential house with a large yard.
Nanyang kangzhiyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., located in Ligang village, has no company sign at the door and the iron door is locked.
A few minutes after knocking, a middle-aged man came and opened the door. The reporter asked about the medical disinfectant in the name of a hospital purchaser. The other party immediately became enthusiastic and took the reporter to the production area. This is a simple factory. Five women are working to produce a pile of small bottles of spray disinfectant. On one side of the workshop, there are also many packaged medical alcohol, a bottle of 500ml and a box of 30 bottles.
According to the middle-aged man who opened the door to receive reporters, his name was zhaoyusong, the younger brother of the boss zhaoyujun, and he was mainly responsible for production. The two brothers are from Xinye county. They rented the site of Ligang village to build a factory. At present, there are sevenoreight workers.
"Our production is semi-automatic, with a maximum of 2000 cases per day and an average of 500 cases per day." Zhaoyusong said.
According to zhaoyusong, about 15000 bottles of 500ml medical disinfectants are produced here every day. According to his introduction, these medical alcohol and other disinfectants are mainly sold through online channels. "70% or 80% of them are sold online. JD, pinduoduo and Taobao all have them. Now the sales volume is OK, and generally there is no inventory."
500 ml of medical alcohol stacked in the plant.
In order to reassure the reporter, zhaoyusong also presented the company's business license and the sanitation license of the disinfection product manufacturer. Before leaving, zhaoyusong took out two bottles of 100ml medical disinfectant and one bottle of 500ml 75% medical alcohol produced by the factory on March 3 as samples.
The reporter sent 75% of the donated medical alcohol to Shanghai textile group testing standards Co., Ltd. for testing. The test results showed that the medical alcohol also contained methanol, with a content of 0.55%.
On June 6, the surging reporter contacted zhaoyujun, the person in charge of Nanyang kangzhiyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in the name of hospital purchasing personnel. Zhaoyujun said by telephone that his company is still producing in Ligang village, huangtaigang town. 500ml bottled medical disinfectant and 100ml sprayed medical alcohol can be supplied. Zhaoyujun also said that its products do not contain methanol, "you can rest assured."
There is an online shop that has been taken off the shelves. There is a problem with disinfectant
On June 6, the surging news reporter searched the "flagship store of Shuiguang micro vision pharmacy" on the Jingdong platform and found that the previously sold "xiao'antang" brand medical disinfectant, a commodity produced by Nanyang kangzhiyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., had been taken off the shelves.
Prior to this, several "problem" disinfectants have been removed from the online shopping platform. On March 15, surging news found that the "Qingjie disinfection supplies Museum" of pinduoduo online store selling Mr. Luo's "Baijia" brand disinfectant had taken all goods off the shelves, and the "Qingjie disinfection supplies Museum" was entered in the store search column, but the corresponding store was not displayed.
As for the "Baijia" brand disinfectant purchased by Fanpai news, its sales shop "Qianchao daily chemical franchise store" took off all disinfection products. After inquiring the seller, they were told that the "Baijia" brand disinfectant "was out of stock and was taken off the shelves".
The online shop "alcohol ethanol disinfectant" selling "Shengliyuan" brand disinfectant on Taobao platform has changed the commodity link. The product sold now is "aojiabao" brand medical disinfectant produced by Xintai Huayuan medical and Health Products Co., Ltd., and it is specially noted that "it does not contain methanol and is free of poison".
The link to the unknown disinfectant sold by pinduoduo store "Bian Xiaomei cleaning products franchise store" has also been changed to industrial detergent of Taicang ward Chemical Co., Ltd.
Other stores and products sold remain unchanged.
A gang in Guangdong counterfeited methanol to disinfect alcohol, and many people were sentenced
The surging news learned that the price of methanol is lower than that of ethanol (alcohol). The price of methanol is usually 2000-3000 yuan / ton. Calculated at the price on March 10, 2022 (3020 yuan / ton), it is only 3.02 yuan per kilogram; The price of ethanol is 7025 yuan / ton, which is 2.3 times that of methanol. The price difference of raw materials led lawbreakers to take risks.
According to the notice of the State Administration of market supervision, at the end of January, 2020, the market supervision bureau of Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province, according to the clues reported by the market supervision bureau of Fogang County, sent a batch of "medical alcohol (ethanol 75%)" products sold by a stationery store in Fogang County without manufacturer's address, production standards and other information for inspection. The content of methanol was 45.8% and ethanol was 4.4%, which were seriously unqualified products.
Qingyuan Market Supervision Bureau immediately notified the public security, procuratorate, Health Bureau and other units to carry out joint law enforcement inspection. On the evening of February 9, Qingyuan Municipal Market Supervision Bureau assisted the public security department to seize 3 production dens and storage warehouses, 2 sales outlets, 2 production lines, 12 suspected suspect, nearly 6000 bottles of fake and shoddy medical alcohol, about 4 tons of unfilled raw materials, and a large number of packaging and identification materials.
Qingyuan police in Guangdong also reported the details of the case: some people reported to the public security organ that they had purchased 280 bottles of medical alcohol at a large network platform shop for public health disinfection for epidemic prevention, but the inspection verified that the products were fake disinfection alcohol. The law enforcement officers of the market supervision bureau of Baiyun District, Guangzhou finally confirmed that the manufacturer marked on the alcohol package, Guangzhou Baiyun District medical preparation center, did not exist.
According to the judgment made by the people's Court of Qingcheng District, Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province on September 8, 2020, it was found through trial that during the period from July, 2018 to February, 2020, the defendant yanmouyong purchased methanol, ethanol and other raw materials, blended and filled alcohol products in a certain proportion, and marked with "75%, 95%, disinfectant" and other words, and sold them to the defendants zhumouwen and fanmouling, with a total sales amount of RMB 333661; The defendants zhumouwen and fanmouling sold the purchased alcohol products online and offline through simple sorting and packaging. The total sales amount was 295925.2 yuan, including 213059 yuan sold to the defendants wumouyu and caimouqing; The defendants wumouyu and caimouqing sold the purchased alcohol products online to more than 700 customers, with a total sales amount of 167009.44 yuan. Through testing and identification, the ethanol content of the above alcohol products does not meet the requirements of gb26373-2010 hygienic standard for ethanol disinfectants.
The court ruled that Yan Yiyong committed the crime of producing and selling fake and inferior products and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 350000 yuan; Zhumouwen, fanmouling and other people who committed the crime of selling fake and inferior products were sentenced to three years' imprisonment, suspended for three years to one year and three months' imprisonment, suspended for two years and fined.