If you’ve got a bottle of foaming hand soap sitting by your sink right now, this is your sign to do a wellness check on it. Intercon Chemical Company, based in St. Louis, has recalled six hand soaps distributed across 15 states after discovering potential bacterial contamination—and the FDA just classified it as a Class II recall this week, meaning exposure could cause temporary or reversible health effects.
Two of the six—Intercon Foaming Pear Hand Soap With Aloe and Clearly Better by Intercon Foaming Pear Hand Soap With Aloe—have been specifically linked to several strains of Pseudomonas and Serratia bacteria, both notoriously resistant to antibiotics. The rest were recalled more broadly for “potential bacterial contamination.” In someone with a healthy immune system, this might not be serious cause for concern. But for immunocompromised individuals, the FDA warns these bacteria can cause significant complications, including blood infections, pneumonia, UTIs and even bone or heart infections.
The affected products go as follows:
- Intercon Foaming Pear Hand Soap With Aloe (28.7 fl. oz.)
- Clearly Better by Intercon Foaming Pear Hand Soap With Aloe (34 fl. oz.)
- Summit 150 Foaming Hand Soap (28.7 fl. oz.)
- Vestis Foaming Hand Soap, Fresh Pear Scent (33.8 fl. oz.)
- Laura Lynn Honey Apple Crisp Liquid Hand Soap (8 fl. oz.)
- Laura Lynn Foaming Pear Scent Hand Soap With Moisturizers (7.5 fl. oz.)
After checking to see if you own one of these, your next step is to search Intercon’s name or your product's recall number on the FDA’s website to see if your bottle has been impacted, along with the specific lot codes and best-by dates. From there, stop using it and call your doctor if you've experienced any symptoms of infection.
As someone who washes her hands approximately eleven thousand times a day as a crazed mom during cold and flu season, I’ll be triple-checking my own bottles as part of tonight’s exciting plans. I implore you to do the same. Until then, hand sanitizer has never looked so good.
