Waterless hand sanitizers, found in hospitals, schools, day-care centers, grocery stores and health clubs, are generally considered effective germ killers if they contain more than 60 percent alcohol. But are they safe?
A colleague’s 8-year-old daughter licked 10 to 20 globs of hand sanitizer while at a supervised play center at a suburban health club, an idea that originally came from a classmate while at school. She ended up in the intensive care unit for two days.
“She was bumping into things and acting, well, drunk, but she said she had hit her head and we thought concussion,” said her father. “I took her home and she was passing out in the car. I was about to go to the emergency room when she blacked out. My wife called 911. She stopped breathing for a few seconds in the ambulance, but when they put tube in, she was breathing again on her own.”
The hand sanitizer-Purell with aloe-contained 62 percent ethyl alcohol--and the father was told if it had been isopropanol, found in other brands, the ingestion likely would have been fatal.
“As it was, her blood alcohol level at 6 p.m., less than two hours after exposure, was .218. She was going from unconscious to screaming rage to unconscious every few minutes. She awoke lucid at midnight, though her blood alcohol content was still .106. (The legal limit is .08)
“Physically she appears to be fine now,” her father said of the April incident. But “there are some emotional scars for sure."
The Illinois Poison Center has only had one similar case, involving a four-year old and say licks and tastes are not generally harmful.
But earlier this year, the New England Journal of Medicine reported two cases of people getting intoxicated after ingesting the alcohol-based hand sanitizers. One was a normally mild and calm 49-year-old prison inmate who was described as being ‘red-eyed,’ ‘loony’ and ‘combative’ and ‘lecturing everyone about life.’"
Another case involved a 43-year-old man battling alcoholism. When asked why he ingested the hand cleaner, he pointed to the label that read, “active ingredient 63 percent v/v ispropyl alcohol," which he said is higher than that in vodka, according to the report.
I use hand sanitizer all the time. Is my very calm 5-month old getting drunk when he sucks on my hand? Alarmed, I e-mailed nurse epidemiologist Ed Goodwin at Rush University Medical Center, who said, “the alcohol part evaporates in just seconds as it air dries…so your hands may still feel it but there is no alcohol touching your child’s lips.”
Still, parents should remember the sanitizers can be fatal if abused and that teenagers are already on to this dangerous high.
“Most kids might take a lick and get repulsed,” said the 8-year-old’s father. “(My daughter) said she liked the taste.”
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2007/05/getting_drunk_o.html
Originally posted: May 22, 2007