THE DEPARTMENT OF Agriculture has urged the public only to purchase approved hand sanitisers after it emerged some were removed from the list due to the presence of unsafe chemicals.
The department said only products listed on the Department’s Biocidal Product Register may be placed on the market in Ireland.
It said it was aware of many unregistered products on the market but stopped short of telling the public to dispose of the products which have not been placed on the register.
The authorised products should have a clearly visible PCS or IE-BPA or EU number on the label, the department said.
More than 450 hand sanitising products are listed on the register of approved products.
A statement from the department said it has become clear there are some products on the market that are not properly registered.
The department stressed that “there is no reason to believe that the failure to register a product gives rise of itself to specific concerns in relation to safety or efficacy”.
“For this reason, the department is not requiring members of the public to dispose of a product already in their possession. People are, however, advised to ensure that future purchases bear one of the numbers referred to above,” it added.
Last week, the Department of Agriculture notified HSE Procurement that the Biocides licence of the Irish distributor Virapro had been revoked.
Virapro’s products were removed from the Biocides Product Register with immediate effect, which meant that it was no longer legal for use or sale in Ireland and needed to be removed from circulation.
The HSE had received 3,128,876 units of Virapro sanisters, which have since been recalled by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine.
Of the three million Virapro sanitisers obtained by the HSE, two million have been placed in quarantine.
Suppliers of biocidal products are legally required to ensure that their products are safe and effective.
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