An Important Safety Warning: Hand Sanitizers Can Be TOXIC to children
Monday, June 11, 2007 at 09:27AM A friend recently sent me a story, confirmed by snopes.com about a 4 year old girl who was rushed to the hospital after being lethargic and incoherent. The school said "She was very VERY sick." When the father arrived to pick her up she was barely sitting in the chair. She couldn't hold her own head up and when he looked into her eyes, she couldn't focus them.
They took her to the ER and the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her for about 5 hours. After questioning the little girl's classmates, they found out that she had licked hand sanitizer off her hand and when they tested her blood, her blood alcohol level was at 85%! That was six hours after she had ingested the sanitizer.
The parents did some research and found out that it only takes 3 squirts of the stuff to be fatal in a toddler. For her blood alcohol level to be so high was to compare someone her size to drinking something 120 proof.
So reconsider if you want this stuff in your home, around your children -- and if you do -- please please keep it out of reach of your children!
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (2)
Thank you for the reminder to keep this, and all other chemicals, out of little one's reach.
The take home message seems to be that kids should not have unsupervised access to hand santizer. It is made of alcohol which is poisonous to kids if it's eaten. If adults just stick around and watch that the child doesn't lick the hand santizer when it's still wet, there shouldn't be a problem.