Pharmacies and markets have until the 30th to exhaust stocks of ethyl alcohol at a concentration of 70%, the famous 70% alcohol, in liquid form. The gel item can still be sold. The obligation follows the rules of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), which regulates the sale of products of this type in Brazil.
But why was the sale of products, widely used during the Covid-19 health crisis, banned in the country? In reality, the widespread sale of 70% liquid alcohol was banned in Brazil in 2002 after an Anvisa resolution highlighted “the risks posed to public health resulting from accidents due to burns and ingestion, especially in children”.
At the time, a report from the Ministry of Health highlighted estimates from the Brazilian Burn Society (SBQ) of around one million annual cases involving accidents of this type in the country, 300 thousand of them involving children under 12 years old and 45 thousand of these due to to alcohol. Sales are now restricted to places such as hospitals, laboratories and companies that need specific sterilization.
However, with the spread of the new coronavirus at the beginning of 2020, the federal government implemented a series of extraordinary measures to help combat the pathogen. Among them, at the end of March of that year, Anvisa authorized the sale of 70% liquid alcohol in markets and pharmacies, but emphasized that it was a “temporary” decision due to the emergency context.
The permission initially had a term of 180 days, but was extended a few times. The last extension of the period was at the end of 2022, when, amid a new rise in Covid-19 cases in Brazil, a resolution from the agency’s Collegiate Board authorized the sale of products until December 31, 2023.
However, the text considered that, “for stock depletion purposes”, the sale could still be made for another 120 days after the end of the resolution, that is, a period that ends on the 30th of this month. Therefore, from May onwards, markets and pharmacies will once again be banned from selling 70% alcohol.
To GLOBO, doctor Álvaro Pulchinelli, technical director of forensic toxicology and toxicologist at Grupo Fleury, explained that the item in the liquid version is highly flammable, which in fact represents a risk, especially for children.
And, since Covid-19 no longer represents a public health emergency – the highest alert status came to an end in Brazil in April 2022, by the Ministry of Health, and in the world, by the WHO, in May last year –, there is no longer a need to market it so easily.