A disturbing trend of teenagers showing up in Los Angeles emergency rooms after drinking inexpensive liquid hand sanitizers to get drunk, has concerned health experts.
Cheap and easily accessible hand sanitizers contain 62 percent ethyl alcohol. According to the report in The Los Angeles Times, six teenagers have shown up in two San Fernando Valley emergency rooms in the last few months with alcohol poisoning after drinking hand sanitizer.
Some of the teens used salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer, making a potent drink similar to a shot of hard liquor. Distillation instructions can be found on the Internet.
Although there's only been a few cases, county public health toxicology expert Cyrus Rangan says it could signal a dangerous trend.
Dr. Billy Mallon works in the emergency room at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center. He said he's seen too many young people come through the hospital's doors because they tried to get drunk by guzzling hand sanitizer. “It doesn't sound appealing, but you have to remember that kids don't have access to alcohol so they're very creative,” Mallon said.
“It's essentially a shot of hard liquor,” said Cyrus Rangan. “All it takes is just a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager…It is kind of scary that they go to that extent to get a shot of essentially hard liquor,” Rangan said. Although there have been only a few cases, Rangan said the practice could easily become a larger problem.
In addition to the teens who intentionally drank the sanitizer, younger children also have accidentally ingested it in the past. A few drinks can cause a person's speech to slur and stomach to burn, and make them so drunk that they have to be monitored in the emergency room.
Teens have done the same with mouthwash, cough syrup and even vanilla extract. “Over the years, they have ingested all sorts of things,” said Helen Arbogast, injury prevention coordinator in the trauma program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. “Cough syrup had reached a very sexy point where young people were using it.... We want to be sure this doesn't take on the same trend.”
If parents buy hand sanitizer, they should purchase the foam version rather than the gel type because it is harder to extract the alcohol and teens may be less likely to drink it. Parents also shouldn't leave hand sanitizer around the house, and should monitor it like any other liquor or medication.
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