Roy Blunt asks FDA to relax alcohol rules on distillers making hand sanitizer
Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and six other senators want the Food and Drug Administration to relax regulations on distillers making hand sanitizer to help fill the shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FDA has already loosened rules to allow companies that produce alcohol for consumption to make sanitizer. But FDA guidelines require them to denature their alcoholc— a process that makes the alcohol in the sanitizer poisonous and undrinkable.
In a Thursday letter to the FDA, Blunt, a Republican, and senators of both parties asked the agency to allow the use of undenatured alcohol that distillers have readily available.
“Undenatured alcohol is food grade alcohol that is compliant with the WHO’s hand sanitizer formula and has the same effectiveness as denatured alcohol. The United States largely differentiates between the two types of alcohol for tax purposes,” said the letter.
The letter tells the agency to work with the industry to create reasonable safeguards protecting children from the sanitizer.
“We have a responsibility to provide more resources to help flatten the curve and alleviating this burden would allow distilleries the opportunity to step up and help their communities,” the letter states.
Joining Blunt were Republicans Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Democratic senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow Michigan also signed.
J. Rieger & Co. in Kansas City is already producing hand sanitizer under the FDA’s current guidelines. Andy Rieger, the company’s president, said that relaxing the regulation would not make a difference for his company because it is already denaturing alcohol.
However, Rieger said the new rule could enable smaller distillers to use vodka they already have to produce a hand sanitizer.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 1:29 PM.
