A growing number of kids are going to American emergency rooms after drinking hand sanitizer, according to experts. In Georgia alone, more than 16,000 children under the age of 12 were treated for ingesting sanitizer—about five times the number who were treated in 2010.
The problem with hand sanitizer is that it’s about 45 to 95 percent alcohol—a far higher percentage than you’ll find in beer, wine and all but the highest-concentrated liquors. They also have a great, often fruity scent to them. Kids who don’t know any better may take a couple of squirts of sanitizer because they think it’ll taste good. The kids who do know better may be using the substance to get drunk. What none of these kids know is that because of the high concentration of alcohol, it only takes a squirt or two to bring on a serious case of alcohol poisoning. (USA Today)