Skin care recalls in Canada: how they happen and how to check

Every so often a headline says a sunscreen, a dry shampoo or a hand sanitizer has been recalled. It can be unsettling, especially if the same bottle is in your bathroom. Recalls are actually a sign the system is doing its job. Here’s how they work in Canada, why skin products get pulled, and how to check what you own.

What a recall is, and who starts it

Health Canada defines a recall as a company’s removal from sale or use, or correction, of a product that presents a risk to health or breaks the rules. In most cases the company carries out the recall, often after its own testing finds a problem or after Health Canada asks it to act.

The rules differ a little by product type:

• Drugs and natural health products (sunscreens, sanitizers, medicated creams). Health Canada expects companies to recall voluntarily when a product breaks the rules or poses a risk. If a product poses a serious or imminent risk and the company won’t agree, Health Canada has the power to order a recall. It also monitors recalls to make sure they’re done in a timely and effective way.
• Cosmetics (moisturizers, shampoos, soaps). Recalls are done by industry, following Health Canada’s recall guide. The power to order a recall in the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act applies to ordinary consumer products, not to cosmetics, which fall under the Food and Drugs Act. Companies aren’t legally required to report cosmetic incidents either, though Health Canada encourages them to.

How serious is it? The three types

Health Canada sorts health product recalls by risk:

• Type I: a reasonable probability that using the product will cause serious health consequences or death.
• Type II: the product may cause temporary health problems, or the chance of serious harm is remote.
• Type III: using the product is not likely to cause any health problems.

For Type I and Type II recalls, Health Canada issues public warnings as needed. Most people will never be harmed by a recalled product, but the type tells you how urgently to act.

Why skin products get recalled

Scroll through a few years of alerts and the same reasons come up again and again.

Contamination with germs

A product can pick up germs during manufacturing. Health Canada’s hand sanitizer warnings, for example, include products recalled because they were contaminated with a bacterium, Burkholderia stabilis. That’s a quality failure that no label can reveal, which is why recalls matter.

Impurities such as benzene or methanol

Benzene is an industrial chemical that can cause cancers such as leukemia and blood disorders with long-term exposure. It isn’t added on purpose. The US FDA says contamination has likely come from inactive ingredients made from hydrocarbons, such as carbomers (thickeners) and isobutane (a spray propellant). According to the FDA, hand sanitizers, aerosol antiperspirants and sunscreens, and some benzoyl peroxide acne products have been recalled because of benzene. The FDA doesn’t let drug makers release batches above 2 parts per million.

Methanol turned up in some sanitizers during the pandemic. Health Canada warns that frequent skin use can cause dermatitis and eye and airway irritation, and that swallowing it can be fatal.

Wrong ingredients or wrong labels

Some recalls involve ingredients that aren’t authorized, the wrong amount of the active ingredient, missing warnings, or counterfeit products. When Health Canada sampled 40 hand sanitizers in 2021, 25 weren’t compliant and posed a risk to health; 19 had impurities above safety limits. The review led to recall requests, stop-sale requests and licence actions.

How to check for recalls

The Government of Canada’s Recalls and safety alerts site gathers alerts for health products, consumer products, food and vehicles in one place. For skin products:

• Search by product type (“sunscreen”, “hand sanitizer”, “baby wipes”) or by the company name on your label.
• Open the notice and compare the details carefully: product name, size, and especially the lot number and expiry date. Recalls often cover only certain lots.
• Sign up for email alerts or an RSS feed if you’d like new notices sent to you.

If a product claims to treat or protect and you’re not sure it’s authorized, look for a DIN or NPN on the label and check it in Health Canada’s databases. Health Canada gives the same advice in its sanitizer warnings.

What to do if you have a recalled product

• Stop using it, and keep it away from children.
• Follow the notice. It may explain how to get a refund or a replacement from the company.
• Dispose of it safely. Health Canada’s sanitizer advice is to follow your municipal or regional guidelines for disposing of chemicals, or return the product to a pharmacy.
• Watch for symptoms. If you or a child used the product and have a rash, irritation or other symptoms, contact your doctor or pharmacist. If someone swallowed a recalled product, call your poison centre or get medical help right away.
• Report problems. If you had a reaction, you can report it to Health Canada, which helps it judge whether a recall is working.

There’s one caution the FDA adds about sunscreen that applies here too: a recall of one product isn’t a reason to stop protecting your skin. Swap to a product that isn’t affected.

Keeping it in perspective

Recalls sound alarming, but most involve a small number of lots and a low risk. The FDA notes, for example, that even decades of daily use of benzene-contaminated acne products would carry a very low cancer risk. What matters is that problems get found, products come off the shelves, and people who own them find out.

In short: most skin product recalls in Canada are carried out by the company and monitored by Health Canada, which ranks them from Type I (most serious) to Type III. Contamination, impurities like benzene and methanol, and wrong ingredients or labels are the usual causes. Check the Recalls and safety alerts site, match the lot number, stop using anything affected, dispose of it properly, and talk to a health professional if you have symptoms.