Kids Getting Drunk on Hand Sanitizers
The seemingly harmless liquid hand sanitizer that comes in varied fruity flavors, has been found to be alarmingly intoxicating for kids and teenagers, based on an analysis conducted by Georgia Poison Center as reported by CNN.
In the recent case of six year old Nhaijah Russell, after an innocent intake of merely three or four squirts of a strawberry-flavored hand sanitizer, it had contained enough alcohol to make the little girl dangerously intoxicated. She was rushed to the emergency room at Gwinnett Medical Center near Atlanta, by which time her words were slurring and she was finding difficulty in walking straight. Dr Chris Ritchey who attended Russell, claims that the blood-alcohol level in the child was found to be .179, which is twice as much as what is considered legally safe for adults to drive their vehicles. Russell was legally drunk and at twice the norm.
According to the Georgia Poison Center via CNN, while the amount of alcohol in beer and wine contains around 5 and 12 percent of alcohol, hand sanitizers on the other hand contain a staggering 45 to 95 percent levels in alcohol. Thus, ingesting even small amounts of the liquid can lead to serious alcohol poisoning.
While youngsters take in the sanitizer liquid intentionally or unintentionally, according to a new analysis by the Georgia Poison Center as reported by CNN - since 2010, the poison control center hotlines across USA have received nearly 400% increase in calls with regards to children consuming hand sanitizers. Further, while the number of reported hand sanitizer cases were around 3266 in 2010, in 2014 the number leaped to 16,117 cases.
According to News 3 Channel, this rising issue is not to be taken lightly, as alcohol poisoning can lead to severe complications such as a child not breathing or can result in comparatively milder symptoms such as confusion, vomiting and drowsiness. Dr, Gaylord Lopez, the Center's Director, recommends that when children use sanitizers, it should be strictly monitored by the caretaker, and when not in use stored out of reach from children. He further suggests using non-alcohol based sanitizing wipes and products instead.
