Just when you think you’ve heard everything, along comes something that baffles and surprises. Did you know kids are getting drunk on alcohol based hand sanitizers? I did not even know that was a thing. According to CNN, lots of times it’s totally accidental, like the 6 year old in Atlanta who was recently hospitalized for alcohol poisoning after taking a couple of squirts of strawberry hand sanitizer. In her case, she thought it tasted good. Yikes.
As weird as her case sounds, though, apparently it’s not that rare. According to the article, there has been a 400% increase in calls due to children ingesting hand sanitizer. The statistic mentioned kids 12 and younger, so I am going to assume these are all accidental ingestions, but the article DID say some kids {I assume teenagers} are doing it on purpose?!
Since “the amount of alcohol in hand sanitizer ranges from 45% to 95%,” kids could conceivably get alcohol poisoning crazy fast. With fruit-scented sanitizers now on the market, it’s even more appealing.
Am I living in a bubble? Did you know this was even a thing?
~Mavis
Susan says
I heard about this on the news just yesterday. Had NO idea!
Ashley says
And to think I’ve been packing a flask everyday when I had hand sanitizer all along! (kidding)
Actually, I just read a story about a mom who put sanitizer in her little boys feeding tube to kill him 🙁
Martha says
When I first became a Watkins associate, someone told me that some stores on the east coast were putting bottles of vanilla behind locked doors because kids were coming in and buying the vanilla for the alcohol content! Watkins has a vanilla w/that has 8.25% alcohol as opposed to most that have around 35%. I found that interesting because I never would have thought to worry about my vanilla around my kids!
Elise says
Yes, I’ve heard of it. I guess a few years ago. I only have small kids, but maybe I heard about it at work, I used to work in a hospital. Crazy, but it make so much sense. I had friends who used to drink nyquil to get a high in HS. Teens are crafty! Very crafty. I don’t know how to keep a step ahead, but I worry about it. There were people in the PTO who were surprised to hear that kids were playing on the (flat) roof of the school on weekends. DUH!! My friends (and sometimes I) did stupid st!t like that all the time. Maybe my own childhood experience in the 70s was more free than some kids born later, but I wasn’t the oldest in that room… I was shocked that they were shocked about the kids on the roof!
Seriously? says
First, the alcohol in hand sanitizer is most commonly Isopropyl alcohol (sometimes methynol) which will not get you drunk just regular poisoned.
Second, I doubt any yong adult that isn’t suffering from pica does this more than once as it is very unpleasent.
Please know the difference, anything not ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is just poison and will make you more sick than anything else. Edjucate you child that there is a difference so that this doesn’t happen.
It is more common an adult will be poisoned from drinking Gasoline because it contains ethanol than people of any age to poisoned by isopropyl alcohol.
On the other hand I have hear of homeless people buy vanilla extract. Not sure what the validity of that is but I am pretty sure thats why the bottles are so small.
CNN does like their fear-mongering.
Emma says
I’m a RN and have caught some of my patients drinking it while hospitalized. Having the “you cannot drink hand sanitizer while we are trying to take care of you and get you better” conversation is one that I have too frequently. People with addictions get desperate!
Lydia says
This doesn’t surprise me at all. A few years ago I taught on a First Nations reserve in northern Canada and we had to lock the school doors to keep individuals from wandering in and stealing the hand sanitizer. Apparently, some people learned how to make homemade alcohol from it.
Crystal says
I work as a cashier. I’ve had people who come in and buy a bottle of mouthwash every single day, who I know must be drinking it. We have to check ID for people who buy whipped cream in a can, because kids huff the chemicals used in it to get high. So while I didn’t specifically know about this, I am not at all surprised. Because if whipped cream has an age restriction (must be 18 or older to buy it!), people must be using anything and everything to get high or drunk.
Donna Wilson says
You are right about the mouthwash. I run a food pantry and we have had issues with mouthwash. We’re very careful about how we distribute it.
Didn’t know about the hand sanitizer or canned whipped cream.
Deborah from FL says
Sadly, I guess it doesn’t surprise me.
I remember something in the news a while back about someone (who does not drink alcohol at all!) who got a DUI charge after obsessive use of hand sanitizer (on their hands) resulting in an elevated blood alcohol count. Weird!
Katy says
Yeah, this has been around for a long time now. Rather scary. It was pretty popular with the older teens pre-college age group. Additionally – you can use hand sanitizer as a fire starter in a pinch.
Deborah says
I had no idea. Isn’t the alcohol I hand sanitizer wood alcohol? It smell yucky to me. And tastes even worse. I have some vanilla scented that I keep in my purse. I’ve even made my own.
Lana says
Maybe I should alert my DIL since our 5 yr old grandson ate and entire tube of toothpaste on Sunday. Could be he would try this too.
Deborah from FL says
I’d definitely say something. Better safe than sorry, right? 😉
Terri says
I had a relative with a neighbor who used to drink Avon perfume for the alcohol. The Avon lady had no idea. She thought the woman was a collector of the bottles.
Linda says
I heard about this several years ago. Someone I know was in juvenile detention, and several kids got good and drunk on hand sanitizer. I can’t imagine why they would make it taste or even smell like any kind of food.
Jen l a says
Oh yes. I work in a high school. Teenagers are wonderful but they are lost in the world between kid and adult. ITs awful what they try.
Norma says
Working as an American Heart Association instructor, I know a lot about this. We teach regular poison responses, call poison control being the first. 911 next.
And in another lifetime (70’s and 80’s) when I worked in a women’s prison, some of the hardcore alcoholics would drink the isopropyl alcohol if they could get their hands on the bottle that was kept in each housing unit.
I just took a narcan class last week and am now certified to give a nasal injection of this drug to drug addicts who od. Also, older people who are on opiate-based pain killers will sometimes forget if they took their meds or not, take another one, and od. They gave us a certification card at the end of the class, and 2 doses of the drug, and again, the first thing to do – call 911.
So if you are a care giver at all, you need to be aware of this.