A 2-year-old girl from Minnesota recently swallowed some hand sanitizer. When her mom took her to the emergency room, medics determined the child was legally drunk as a result.
Poison control says hand sanitizers have such a high alcohol content, even a couple of teaspoons can be harmful to a small child.
http://www.kfmb.com/story.php?id=77767WASHINGTON -- The 49-year-old Maryland inmate seemed seriously sick after he drank from a gallon-container of hand sanitizer. Described as "loony,'' "red-eyed'' and "combative,'' officials whisked him to a nearby Baltimore hospital for treatment.
But they quickly discovered he wasn't ill -- just very, very drunk on Purell.
Purell, which is 70 percent alcohol, is far more potent than conventional drinks such as beer (five percent), wine (10 percent) or hard liquor (40 percent). Doyon said the non-alcohol ingredients in hand sanitizer don't pose a health risk if ingested.
"Someone who drinks it will behave like your pretty typical garden-variety drunk,'' she said.
The October incident, detailed Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine as one of the first documented cases of its kind, has raised questions about the potential abuse of alcohol-based hand sanitizers by teen-agers and other at-risk groups.
The Maryland inmate, described as usually calm, seemed intoxicated and began "lecturing everybody about life'' after imbibing the Purell, Doyon said. His blood alcohol content level was found to be .33 -- more than four times the legal limit to drink and drive in Maryland.
http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/+/2007020119/Inmates-binge-traced-to-potent-hand-sanitizer/
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