Three more deaths might be connected to contaminated alcohol wipes made by the Hartland-based H&P Industries and its sister company, Triad Group, according to a review of federal documents by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still unable to establish a clear connection between the wipes and a total of 11 deaths reported to the agency in the wake of a product recall. The disposable wipes are suspected of being contaminated with Bacillus cereus, a common bacterium that can be deadly if it gets in the blood or spinal canal.
Six federal lawsuits, including one filed by the family of a Texas boy who died earlier this year, contend that Triad Group and H&P Industries distributed the contaminated wipes, but in order to prove the wipes caused illness or death, the FDA needs the wipes that were used in each case to be preserved.
Triad, which has denied any connection between its products and any deaths or illnesses, is named as the supplier in five of the 11 deaths; another death was connected to a supplier that was a customer of H&P. Five other reports did not identify a supplier.
H&P Industries has been shut down since federal marshals raided its plant earlier this year and seized $6 million in suspected products, but the company plans to resume operations under an FDA consent decree that will monitor manufacturing and quality at the plant. The Journal Sentinel has reported that the FDA had, over a decade, identified problems at the plant but did not take formal action against the company.
