Detecting methanol in hand sanitizers

Summary The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has increased dramatically the demand for hand sanitizers. A major concern is methanol adulteration that caused more than 700 fatalities in Iran and U.S.A. (since February 2020). In response, U.S. Food Drug Administration restricted content sanitizers to 0.063 vol% blacklisted 212 products (as of November 20, Here, we present a low-cost, handheld, smartphone-assisted device detects selectively between 0.01 100 within two minutes. It features nanoporous polymer column separates from confounders by adsorption. chemoresistive gas sensor methanol. When tested on commercial (total 76 samples), was quantified excellent (R2 = 0.99) agreement "gold standard" chromatography. Importantly, quantification hardly interfered sanitizer composition viscosity. This meets an urgent need on-site screening authorities, health professionals, even laymen.