The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has caused a shortage of hand sanitizers from stores, causing other businesses to begin make up for that loss.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said hand sanitizer should only be used when access to hand washing is unavailable, or before and after visiting someone in a healthcare facility unless the person is sick with a disease which is not affected by hand sanitizer.
Distilleries and pharmacies throughout the United States are on business that are filling the need of hand sanitizer the public has. The hand sanitizer produced by these companies are top of the shelf, or high quality and proof hand sanitizer.
“People need it, and we have the available resources to make it,” said Jason Koltiska, the owner of Koltiska Distillery in Sheridan, Wyoming. Koltiska said he believes the efforts of the distillery will help the community.
In Wyoming, the Backwards Distilling Company, Chronicles Distilling, Pines Bluff Distilling, Koltiska Distillery, Jackson Hole Still Works, Wyoming Whiskey Incorporated and Grand Teton Distillery are all distilling companies making hand sanitizer to flatten the curve of COVID-19’s spread.
“We saw other distilleries starting to make it, and some customers started asking if we could. Makes sense to pause whiskey production to make something that will help the community,” said Chad Brown, a founder of Pine Bluffs Distilling. He said their goal was to make around 1,500 gallons of hand sanitizer.
The distillers received the recipe for hand sanitizer from the World Health Organization (WHO). Hand sanitizer is made at these distilleries by adding certain ingredients to the alcohol they already produce.
“The first batch went out to businesses that contacted us saying they were in dire need. Future batches will go where it is needed most, with the help of [Emergency Medical Services],” said Brown.
Distilleries have been losing money as distillers have already been shut down due to COVID-19. Costs to the distillers also hit hard to distilleries who did not already make high-proof alcohol, including gin and vodka, because high proof alcohol needed to make hand sanitizer is another cost for these businesses. Some distillers throughout the United States are not choosing to profit from the hand sanitizer, which is can be another cost to distillers from alcohol that could have been sold as spirits.
“If we all help out, we will get through this,” said Brown, saying with the help of others, the change for their distillery was easy.
Federal regulations by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are also costing distillers in forms of taxes. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) reported that this federal administration is preventing thousands of gallons of distillery made hand sanitizer from being distributed. Regardless of the FDA’s guidelines, some distillers are still distributing their products.
“Some of the areas we are focusing on are people who do not have access to hand washing,” said Koltiska. He said their distillery has already produced around 100 gallons of hand sanitizer. Although the process was different, it still was an easy implementation for their distillery.
While the rate of children consuming lethal amounts of hand sanitizer has increased due to the pandemic, according to the FDA in a report from the ABC news network, the FDA is being pressed to change their guidelines to ease the pressure on distillers as they are already following the WHO’s guidelines.
