More and more kids are getting drunk on a common household item: hand sanitizer. Poison Control Center hotlines reported an alarming increase in the number of cases of children suffering from alcohol intoxication from hand sanitizer ingestion, CNN reports.
Kids below 12-years-old are often the most affected, says Dr. Gaylord Lopez, director for the Georgia Poison Center. "There's a percentage of them going into the emergency room," Lopez said, according to CNN.
From 2010 to 2014, the number of hand sanitizer intoxication cases reported to poison control centers has risen by a whopping 400 percent. In 2010, there were 3,266 kids who got drunk with hand sanitizer, while in 2014, that number has ballooned to 16,117, according to the Georgia Poison Center.
Lopez explained that sometimes kids are attracted to fruity, colorful hand sanitizers and can't resist the urge to try to eat 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."
Other times, kids intentionally ingest the gel in order to get drunk or as a response to a dare.
While hand sanitizers look innocent, two or three squirts of the product can cause alcohol poisoning. That's because they typically contain 45 to 95 percent alcohol, an amount a lot higher than the alcohol in beer, which only has 5 percent alcohol.
Lopez recommends using alternatives to hand sanitizers, such as sanitizing wipes. He also said they should be kept away from children's reach whether at home or in the schools.
Although hand sanitizers are a convenient way to kill germs, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that washing your hands with soap and water is still the best way to ward off sicknesses, like the flu.
