Six-year-old Nhaijah Russell swallowed at least 3 squirts of hand sanitizer and was sent to the emergency room because of the amount of alcohol in her blood. According to the Georgia Poison Center, there has been almost a 400% increase in hand sanitizer ingestion-related calls for children 12 and under since 2010. The alcohol amount in hand sanitizer can range from 45% to 95%, which a huge difference from wine, which has an alcohol percentage of 12%. Her blood-alcohol level was .179%, which is extremely high for even an adult. In 2010, 3,266 cases of hand sanitizer related incidents involving children were recorded. In 2014, it was 16,117 cases. Dr. Gaylord Lopez from the Poison Center said some do it for dares, and some intend to get drunk. He also says, "There are strawberry, grape, orange-flavored hand sanitizers that are very appealing to kids."
This is an increasing problem. It's hard because they can't ban hand sanitizer like in the Prohibition, and it's too useful to ban in schools. There must be a solution to decrease the number of these incidents, and it may be as simple as keeping the sanitizers away from children.
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The teachers and stores should just keep an eye out on this stuff like regular alcoholic beverages.
ReplyDeleteThis is just like the sharpie incidents.
Wow this is crazy. This would be hard to fix becasue you can't ban hand sanitizer. But that might be what we have to do now. Just send the kids to the bathroom if they want to get their hands washed.
ReplyDeleteThis agrivates me because now we have school aged children, who see everyday on t.v. etc. how much fun it is to do this and that, wanting to get drunk off of hand sanitizer because they think its cool. "YOU'RE 10,11,12!" what the heck sit down somewhere!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really difficult problem, because there is no simple solution. Does hand sanitizer have to have alcohol in it or can there be another cleaning agent mixed in?
ReplyDeleteRodney McDonald Period 9
Who is watching these kids! I think it should be an age limit on who can use hands sanitizer. The teachers should give the right amount for the child instead of the doing it them self.
ReplyDeleteDesiree Smith period4
Adults should put it in an area that isn't easy to access so they can monitor it better. Why did it number of cases increase so much since 2010?
ReplyDeleteThey should just make hand sanitizer that is alcohol-free...
ReplyDeletePeople need to watch there kids! That's crazy-Moriah Smith
ReplyDeleteThis right here is just another reason why hand sanitizer should be outlawed! Not only does it lower your immune system, thus actually making people much more prone to disease, but now stupid people are deciding to chug it.
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ReplyDeleteJust switch the sanitizers with alcohol-free ones. Kids will still try to get drunk off it but they'll be humiliated for their failed attempt and stop trying to do it. Then again, they'd want to get others to be humiliated. Wow, the more you try to fix, the more problems you get.
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