It’s a question to which many parents and caregivers have given little thought: Do alcohol-based hand sanitizers pose an unnecessary risk to children? To help answer that question, the CLEANpHIRST™ staff came up with the following three scenarios involving a 12-year-old boy with $25 to spend:
In the first scenario, he walks into a store where beer is sold and tries to buy a six pack. After placing it on the counter, he’s told, “Sorry, son, you’re too young for that.” Why? Because the law prohibits minors from purchasing the adult beverage products that contain, on average, 5 percent alcohol by volume.
In the second scenario, the same youngster walks into a store where so-called “hard liquor” is sold and tries to buy a pint of 120-proof scotch. After placing it on the counter, he hears the same refrain: “Sorry, son, you’re too young for that.” Why? Because, again, the law prohibits minors from purchasing adult beverage products that contain, on average, 23 percent alcohol by volume.
- Finally, the boy walks into a store where hand sanitizer is sold and tries to buy a 16-oz. bottle with built-in moisturizer. After placing it on the counter, he hears something different from the store clerk: “Did you find everything you need, young man?” In response, the boy says, “Yes,” completes the transaction and walks out the door with a bottle of hand sanitizer.
What’s the big deal? Like the vast majority of hand sanitizers on the market today, the hand sanitizer he purchased contained more than 62 percent alcohol by volume. Moreover, the boy’s $25 could have netted him two bottles and left him with change to spare.
Now, perhaps you’re thinking, “Children don’t drink hand sanitizer.” In response, I’d say, “Think again.”
As highlighted in a Jan. 20, 2007,
report from WCCO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis, hand sanitizer contains such a high alcohol content that even a couple of teaspoons can be harmful to a small, curious child who ingests it.
The headline of a Boston news outlet’s article published six months later about the same incident points to a more-widespread problem:
Dirty Little Secret About Hand Sanitizers: Alcohol Content Leads To Hundreds Of Child Poisonings.
Finally, a poison control center official in Arizona shared some insight about the dangers posed by alcohol-based hand sanitizers in a June 9, 2009, Examiner.com
article. Most importantly, he pointed out the differences between the types of alcohol used in so-called “hard liquor” versus that used in alcohol-based hand sanitizers:
- Alcoholic beverages contain a type of alcohol that is 60- to 70-proof versus the isopropyl alcohol in alcohol-based hand sanitizers which is 120- to 140 proof; and
- If ingested, the isopropyl alcohol in alcohol-based hand sanitizers is more likely to cause nausea, vomiting and bleeding than the alcohol in alcoholic beverages.
He added that isopropyl alcohol is “more inebriating” before pointing out that “Kids have been known to eat the (alcohol-based hand) sanitizer, typically unintentionally.” He followed that comment with some words of advice:
“If this occurs, it’s best to call the local poison center hotline.”
Beyond accidents resulting from youthful curiosity, the intentional abuse/misuse of alcohol-based hand sanitizers has become the subject of many YouTube videos. Type “hand sanitizer fire” in the search bar at
YouTube, and you’ll find hundreds of videos featuring teenagers -- and even some adults! -- applying the alcohol-based product to their hands and then setting their hands on fire (something we strongly discourage).
Accidents will happen around the home, and
CLEANpHIRST™ offers a means to prevent at last some of them:
Alcohol-Free Foam Hand Sanitizer.
Offering unprecedented Log 5 efficacy (i.e., 99.999 percent kill rate on
Staphylococcus aureus), it kills well beyond the level of the leading alcohol-based hand sanitizer products on the market and has been proven proven effective against Norovirus, MRSA and
Clostridium difficile ("C. diff."). Best of all, it works in a manner that’s safe, effective and non-toxic.
To learn more or to place an order,
click here.
Labels: c diff clostridium difficile, Hand Sanitizer, mrsa staph infection
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