Part 2
Today we look into the nasty dangerous game of drinking hand sanitizer to get high!
Yes, kids and teens are actually doing this, and landing their butts in the ER and ICU's intoxicated and barely breathing.
Alcohol is a drug or specifically the drug/chemical ethanol is a central nervous system depressant, thus slowing down the respiratory drive of the drinker, to much and you can stop breathing.
The following article from CBS News shows incidents and possible solutions.
(CBS News) Would you drink hand sanitizer? The idea may sound
repulsive to most people, but California doctors are warning parents of
what may be a fast-growing dangerous trend after six local teenagers
were hospitalized in separate incidents with alcohol poisoning from
drinking the soapy stuff.
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Dangerous "games" that may harm kids and teens
The Los Angeles Times
reported some of the teenagers used salt to separate the alcohol from
the sanitizer using instructions found online. If a liquid hand
sanitizer contains 62 percent ethyl alcohol, that means a "drink" can be
as high as 120 proof, whereas a shot of hard liquor such as whiskey or
vodka is typically 80 proof.
"All it takes is just a few
swallows and you have a drunk teenager," Dr. Cyrus Rangan, director of
the toxicology bureau for the county public health department and a
medical toxicology consultant for Children's Hospital Los Angeles, told
the Los Angeles Times. "There is no question that it is dangerous."
Teens
who presented to the emergency room had symptoms such as slurred speech
and a burning sensation in the stomach. Some teens were so drunk they
needed to be monitored in the emergency room.
Rangan said
although there have been only a handful of cases, the practice could
become a nationwide problem since hand sanitizers are cheap and easily
available, and teens can easily look up how to extract alcohol from a
bottle.
KTLA in Los Angeles reports there were no such cases last year, and the recent spate of cases in recent weeks is surprising.
"It is kind of scary that they go to that extent to get a shot of essentially hard liquor," Rangan said.
A
spokesperson for the Los Angeles Department of Health told HealthPop
there was no official city-wide warning or statement at this time.
Dr.
Robert Glatter, an emergency medicine physician at Lenox Hill Hospital
in New York City, said he has taken care of some teens out who had
ingested hand sanitizers at school as a "dare," only to come to the ER
drunk with dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
"They denied drinking
any 'alcohol', had no smell of alcohol on their breath, but when their
blood alcohol was quite elevated, they later admitted to drinking the
hand sanitizer," Glatter told HealthPop.
Glatter said it's
essential that warning labels be placed on hand sanitizers to educate
parents and the public of potential risks.
"Officials in
institutions where these products are available - including hospitals,
schools, offices, heath clubs, and day care centers - have a duty to
inform people about the alcohol content in these products, and
subsequent dangers if ingested," he told HealthPop.
Doctors told
the L.A. Times that parents should purchase foam hand sanitizers since
they're harder to extract alcohol from compared with gel-based products,
and they should monitor hand sanitizer bottles around the house as if
they are liquor or medicine bottles.
"Over the years, they have
ingested all sorts of things," Helen Arbogast, injury prevention
coordinator in the trauma program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles,
told the Times. "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."
The industry trade organization, the American Cleaning Institute, responded to the recent reports.
"One
case of product misuse - intentional or otherwise - is always one too
many," Nancy Bock, vice president of education at the American Cleaning
Institute said in an emailed statement. "But let's not lose sight of the
fact that millions of people are not abusing these products and do
responsibly use them as needed."
Video shows kids laughing about this crazy trend and posting YouTube videos