08/04/2024
Off the Cuff: Amazon Recalls, Counterfeits, and Patient Safety
Last year I ordered facial oil from Amazon. I've used the same brand for a number of years and normally order it directly from the retailer’s website. This time though I had a credit on my Amazon account and saw that they were selling it for about $20 cheaper than the manufacturer, so I ordered it using my credit. When it arrived I didn’t open it right away, because I was still finishing the bottle I had. A couple months later when I did open it, it was very obvious that this was not the actual product. It smelled and felt very different. In fact it smelled like canola oil, and I honestly think that's what it was. The packaging was the same. The bottle was the same. Everything looked correct but the product. It was over a month since I ordered it, so I had no recourse to get my money back except to report it as counterfeit. This has made me very trepidatious about ordering brand name items from Amazon. This week, two things occurred that reinforced my apprehension.
On Tuesday I saw a longtime contact lens patient for an emergency visit. She had just gotten back from vacation, and her reported symptoms were redness, burning, and watering with her lashes stuck together in the morning. I was expecting to see an allergy or an eye infection, but when I used sodium fluorescein to stain her eyes, she had positive staining on her corneas and every surface of her bulbar and palpebral conjunctiva plus dense papillae on her upper and lower lids. She clearly had chemical burns on both eyes. Her history didn't include any new drops except for the antibiotics a doctor had given her on her trip, but those made her eyes burn even worse so she stopped using them. The only thing she had consistently been using on her trip and after she returned home were the travel bottles of Opti-free that she had ordered from Amazon. I asked her if she went back to her regular bottle when she got home. She said no. She was finishing the travel bottles. I told her the story about the contaminated counterfeit Lumify bottles that were being sold online that looked exactly like the real product, and my story. She opened her Amazon order history and found nearly all the reviews of what she bought had people stating the product burned their eyes, made their eyes red, and others questioning if it was counterfeit and not real Opti-free. She made a quick recovery once the offending agent was discontinued.
This week I read a news article that after a three-year battle with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Amazon was found to be responsible for hazardous products that third-party sellers sell via their website. This led Amazon to recall 400,000 products. Unbelievable. This includes faulty carbon monoxide detectors, children’s pajamas made from flammable materials, hair dryers without electrocution protection, and possibly counterfeit eye drops and contact lens solutions. The fact this recall list was compiled so quickly shows they knew these products were unsafe—and Amazon stated as much in the investigation—but allowed these third-party retailers to sell them via their website anyway. Amazon is appealing the decision so notifications of any purchases you’ve made may be slow coming. It appears adding to your differentials when triaging a patient, “what contact lens solution are you using?”, “where did you purchase it?” may be prudent. In the meantime, buyers beware.
Shannon L. Steinhäuser, OD, MS, FAAO
Chief Medical Editor
ssteinhauser@gmail.com
