Investigation / Muhammad Abu Shahma
Since the first moment of the announcement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza that a number of new cases infected with the Coronavirus (Covid-19) had been recorded at the end of March 2020, the forty-year-old engineer, Hussam Abu Odeh, rushed to purchase a number of sterilizers from a pharmacy in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza He and his family used it, thinking it would protect him from disease, but he suffered cracks and infections in his body, according to medical assurances.
What Abu Odeh was exposed to was a result of the non-conformity of the sterilizers produced and sold by pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies in the Gaza Strip to Palestinian standards, as it was found after a laboratory examination that they contained highly toxic substances, in quantities far exceeding the permitted Palestinian and international standards, at a time when the citizens' need for them increased. In light of the fear of infection with the emerging corona virus.
And just as Abu Odeh did, Yasser Mansour, a worker at a gas station, used a sterilizer he bought from a pharmacy in Gaza City. The manufacturer instead of ethanol, whose quantities were depleted from the market due to the desire of pharmaceutical companies and sterilizers to buy them, and it was not possible to bring more of them into the sector due to the difficulty of introducing them as a result of the Israeli blockade imposed on the sector.
Doctor Rami Tarazi, who holds a master's degree in dermatology and venereal diseases, who treated some cases affected by sterile materials that do not conform to specifications, confirmed that his clinic received patients who had suffered from similar health symptoms as a result of "their recent use of sterilizers that do not conform to specifications and adulterants."
Sterilizers displayed in a Gaza market (Al-Jazeera)
These symptoms varied "between cracks in the skin and infections, but the chemicals in these sterilizers cannot be identified without a laboratory examination," according to Tarazi's assertions, who pointed out that "there are fraudulent sterilizers in pharmacies and markets, the source of which is unknown, which causes diseases for their users." .
The author of the investigation concluded, according to the results of laboratory samples and official confirmations, that the major pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies in the Gaza Strip, which are headquartered in the West Bank, used highly toxic materials in the production and sale of sterilizers in the Gaza market, due to the absence of the substance. The basic material for manufacturing these materials is ethanol, and replacing it with methanol.
Examination of samples
The results of a sample examination conducted by the laboratory of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip between March and November last, which numbered 284 samples for different companies, showed the presence of toxic methanol by 99% in one of the samples, and 87% in other samples, while The permissible standard shall not exceed 0.0025%.
Saleh Al-Tawil, head of the international analysis department in the laboratory of the Ministry of Health, confirmed that "the percentage of samples that have been scientifically proven, and according to the laboratory examination, do not conform to the specifications, amounted to 55% of the total tests conducted by the laboratory."
According to Al-Taweel’s assertions, “pharmaceutical companies, and others that manufacture sterilizers, from among the sample, relied on toxic methanol in the production of sterilizers, despite the Ministry of Health’s warnings about the danger of this substance to human health, due to the disappearance of ethanol from the market,” indicating that after Conducting laboratory tests The Ministry has stopped the work of companies that "deliberately deceived citizens and produced sterilizers from methanol".
In addition to the sterilizers that contained the toxic substance, the head of the international analyzes department in the laboratory of the Ministry of Health stated that some products did not contain any alcohol, and that it was a "hair gel" which constituted 35% of the total examined samples.
Methanol is a hydrocarbon compound composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which belongs to the class of alcohols and has the chemical formula CH3OH.
It is used as a good solvent for some organic materials, and as a high-purity fuel for some machines and cars.
The investigator put these data and the results of the analysis in the hands of the professor of chemistry at Al-Azhar University, Professor Omar Abu Taym, who confirmed that the use of the chemical methanol compound by pharmaceutical companies in the production of sterilizers may cause blindness to its users.
Cell damage and
methanol, according to Abu Taym, "a dangerous substance that turns in the human body into a very toxic" formaldehyde "that affects humans and causes damage to many body cells, including the retina."
And health institutions, according to Abu Taym's assertion, "prohibit the use of methanol in the manufacture of sterilizers, due to the severe toxicity of this chemical compound, and the known degree of danger to human health."
And it is absolutely prohibited, as Abu Taym asserts, "the use of methanol in human beings, with the need for official authorities to impose strict measures on the companies that use it, especially as they know its danger to human health."
Methanol is introduced into Gaza by importing it by major pharmaceutical companies, but it has special uses far from human use, as it is used as a pesticide and a good solvent for some organic materials.
The US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning against using methanol in sterilizers, as it is a toxic substance when absorbed through the skin and may cause death if swallowed.
According to a statement published on July 27, 2020, this administration warned “consumers and health care professionals against using some hand sanitizers that contain alcohol due to the dangerous presence of methanol or wood alcohol, a substance often used to create fuel and anti-freezing that can be toxic when Absorbed through the skin as well as life threatening when swallowed. "
The US Drug Administration had warned earlier in the same month, according to its statement, of "the increasing number of harmful events, including blindness, cardiac effects, effects on the central nervous system, hospitalization and death."
She had published a list of dangerous substances banned from use in the production of sterilizers, and indicated that “in most cases, methanol does not appear on the product label. However, it is not an acceptable ingredient in any medicine, including hand sanitizer, even if it is listed as an ingredient. On the product label. "
The US Food Administration's continuous test found methanol contamination in hand sanitizer products ranging between 1 and 80%, while the investigator found methanol in some samples with a rate of up to 99%.
Companies before the judiciary The
Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, and in the face of the widespread production of sterilizers that do not conform to specifications, and the use of toxic methanol in them, referred to the Public Prosecution 5 companies that manufacture sterilization materials, but no judgments have been issued against them.
According to the legal advisor to the ministry, Saeed Al-Batta, the decision came as a result of the seriousness of what was done, which was the use of methanol in the production of sterilizers.
The use of methanol showing 5 local companies that produce sterilizers for prosecution (Al-Jazeera)
The Ministry of Health refused, as Al-Batta asserts, "to conclude any reconciliation with these companies and reach any amicable solution away from the Public Prosecution, because of their contribution to the increase in the spread of the pandemic, and the threat to the lives of citizens, because of their use of methanol."
According to Al-Batta, the Ministry of Health does not tolerate "the companies that used methanol and produced sterilizers contrary to the existing specifications and protocols, as they cause an exacerbation of the problem."
In addition to its impact on the health of citizens, "the use of methanol violates the specifications and rates specified according to deliberate protocols that strictly prohibit its use in sterilizers," according to the legal advisor at the Ministry of Health.
The investigator went to the judicial authorities in the Gaza Strip, and after studying thousands of cases, he did not find any case before him for sterilizing companies that used methanol or violated the Palestinian standard in the production of sterilization, which means that the files are still under investigation at the prosecution.
Destruction and prosecution
In addition to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza confirmed that some companies used methanol in the production of sterilizers, according to its spokesperson, Abdel Fattah Abu Musa, who confirmed the two ministries ’cooperation by referring the violating companies to the Public Prosecution, in addition to destroying large quantities of these products.
Abu Musa indicated that the results of the Ministry of Economy tests of samples from sterilizers were identical with the results of the samples that the Ministry of Health examined, indicating the presence of methanol in the sterilizers in the markets of the Gaza Strip, which is in violation of the law and constitutes a danger to human health.
The Ministry of Health destroyed quantities of sterilizers containing methanol (Al-Jazeera)
According to Abu Musa, the Ministry of Economy conducts inspection rounds periodically on the companies that produce and licensed sterilizers, which number only 7 in Gaza, to ensure that they use materials that comply with specifications, in addition to making sure that companies obtain the necessary licenses to produce these materials.
The companies respond and
continue the investigation with 6 of the factories and companies that produce sterilization materials in the five governorates of the Gaza Strip, and one in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank.
When they were asked about the materials used in the manufacture of sterilizers, the responses differed. Half of them said that they used identical materials, and another said at the beginning that alternative materials were used due to the lack of identical materials in the market.
The first document refers to the use of a chemical compound that is 99% dangerous and the second is ineffective (Al-Jazeera)
The most prominent of those manufacturers of sterilizers - which are based in Ramallah - confirmed that they used methanol in the production of sterilizers in a permissible rate, and worked during the period of the Corona pandemic, as well as confirming the production of sterile materials in accordance with the specifications, and sending them to the Gaza Strip for marketing, and that they have a health certificate to manufacture Sterilizers, but the results of laboratory tests proved their use of this chemical compound by 99%, which is referred to in document No. (1) attached to this investigation.
Company B, which produces sterilizers in its modest factory in the city of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, confirmed its director that the beginning of the pandemic and its arrival in Gaza, alcohol substances disappeared from the market, in exchange for heavy demand for them.
His company worked, according to the confirmation of its owner, to use methanol and other non-conforming materials in the production and sale of sterilizers, but after the laboratory tests and procedures of the official authorities, his company stopped using these materials.
In addition to the two companies, the investigator also encountered a small factory for the production of detergents in the Gaza Strip. He prepared some sterilization materials and sold them to companies as materials that conform to the specifications, but are free of active substances according to the examination, as document No. (2) shows, meaning "hair gel" .
And there is no effective substance for it that works to eliminate the virus.
The owner of the company confirmed that he works without accurate scientific calculations, but by looking with the naked eye, and touching the sterilization materials, to know that they are ready.
Two local companies used chemical compounds without knowing their concentration ratios (Al-Jazeera)
In the city of Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, the owner of the company (C) for the production of detergents worked mainly on manufacturing sterilization materials with the use of chemical compounds that he used with detergents.
He says, "I used materials without knowing any concentration ratios or based on equations or numbers, but according to the color I used to put the materials," which confirms what the Ministry of Health spoke and showed the results of the tests, as document No. (3) shows.
In the face of the continuation of the Corona pandemic, and despite the Ministry of Health and Economy taking legal measures against companies that violate the specifications, the failure to issue any court ruling against them leaves the citizen confused about his matter in front of a pandemic that may claim his life, and sterilizers that are no less dangerous.
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Field supervision and coordination: Walid El-Batrawi