ISLAMABAD: While Science & Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry claims to be inspecting the “quality” of hand sanitisers across the country, there is no government authority to officially check the quality and standard of this largely consumed product.
Interestingly, neither the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) nor Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has the mandate/authority to check the quality of sanitisers and masks, demand of which has increased manifold amid coronavirus pandemic.
Although the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), soon after the outbreak of the virus, had issued standards for hand sanitisers, masks and ventilators, the concerned authorities in Pakistan are yet to adopt and implement the same in the country.
The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), which claims to have identified a number of sanitiser brands in nonconformity with the WHO standards, is also yet to implement the ASTM standards despite signing a memorandum of understanding with the American body.
It seems the S&T minister, without getting any feedback from relevant people, has taken the lead in curbing the sale of substandard hand sanitisers in the country despite the fact that this product does not fall under the domain of any government department.
The minister recently informed through his tweet that a lab test by PSQCA has shown that 23 brands of sanitisers being sold in the market were not in conformity with WHO standards. The minister also stated that relevant health departments have been advised to remove these 23 brands.
When asked about the standard for sanitisers, a senior ministry official said that WHO is not mandated to set quality standards, and that the world body only gives guidelines. However, he claimed that most of the product standards in Pakistan have been adopted from the ASTM, which was established in 1898.
The PSQCA only has 105 items on its website under the mandate ‘Pakistan Standards’. These include toothpaste, skin cream, shampoo, hair dye, toilet soap, tea-whitener, packed milk etc. The list does not contain sanitisers
A senior PSQCA official acknowledged that there are no standards for sanitisers with the authority, saying that since this product is a “disinfectant”, so it is under the domain of DRAP.
Meanwhile, a DRAP official said that disinfectants are under the domain of the authority’s cosmetics division, but it covered only the surface disinfectants and equipment disinfectants.
“Human disinfectants are not the domain of DRAP, which is why none of anti-bacterial products, including Dettol sanitiser, are registered with DRAP.”
Incidentally, the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has also initiated a preliminary inquiry over the mushroom growth of sanitisers in the country. An insider said, “Our domain is limited to protection of the consumer only…to ensure there are no deceptive marketing practices.”
He said the CCP team would pick samples from the market and get the sanitisers tested in various labs to determine that all claims made at the label are fulfilled.
It was learnt that sanitiser tests are being conducted at the labs of PSQCA and Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), but a senior PCSIR official said Pakistan can only check the contents of a soap or sanitiser.
“There is no lab – at least in the public sector, to perform microbiology test to show that 99pc germs were killed after using any sanitiser,” the official said.
Moreover, an official of the Pakistan Cosmetics Manufacturers Association claimed that PSQCA officials were raiding the shops and declaring the sanitizers substandard without even sharing the standards set by it.
“The authority has neither any standard nor it has any record of inspecting imported sanitizers. We have demanded PSQCA to share the standard if it has any so we can manufacture the item accordingly,” he added.
