About 400% More Kids Are Getting Drunk On Hand Sanitizers, Study

Your children are getting drunk on hand sanitizers.

Poison Control Center hotlines reported that there has been an alarming shoot in the number of kids who are intoxicated due to the drinking of hand sanitizers, says CNN.

It is the children who are below 12 years that get affected the most, says Dr. Gaylord Lopez, director for the Georgia Poison Center. "There's a percentage of them going into the emergency room," Lopez said.

In four years, from 2010 to 2014, these cases have risen by 400 percent. In 2010, while there were 3,266 children who drank it, in 2014, there were 16,117 cases, says the Georgia Poison Center.

Lopez explained that many children tend to be lured to "fruity, colorful hand sanitizers" and tend to consume them.

"A kid is not thinking this is bad for them," Lopez said. "A lot of the more attractive (hand sanitizers) are the ones that are scented. There are strawberry, grape, orange-flavored hand sanitizers that are very appealing to kids."

Many times, children tend to want to be drunk, or take it as a dare.

Just two to three small doses of the santitiser can make you drunk, as they tend to contain 45 to 95 percent alcohol, which is higher than that present in beer, which contains just 5 percent alcohol.

It is important to do away with these sanitizers, or at least keep them out of reach.

Even though sanitizers may look appealing to those who want to clean their hands regularly, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to fight diseases such as the flu, according to hngn.