Hand sanitizer recalls during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive analysis of regulatory records from Canada, Nepal, Singapore and the USA

Between 2020–2024, regulators recorded 1044 recalled alcohol-based hand sanitizer products across Canada, Nepal, Singapore, and the USA, with the USA accounting for 702.

• Why it matters: Rapid COVID-19 demand increased substandard and unregulated sanitizer risks, and recall records are needed to understand regulatory timing and reasons without assuming prevalence.
• What they did: Public regulator records from Canada, Nepal, Singapore, and the USA were extracted and analyzed by country, year, and recall reason to map recall patterns and regulatory practices.
• The result: Administrative non-compliance/nonresponse/unregistered sale drove 43.9% of recalls, hazardous chemical contamination drove 37.4%, and subpotent ethanol or isopropanol drove 15.6%, with most announcements in the first COVID-19 year but no temporal trend.