[Spisivavona]

Seriously, kids are resorting to hand sanitizer now?


A troubling trend in teens drinking hand sanitizer
Medical experts warn parents to watch for danger signs of young people getting drunk on the over-the-counter cleansers, which have a high percentage of ethyl alcohol.
Six teenagers have shown up in two San Fernando Valley emergency rooms in the last few months with alcohol poisoning after drinking hand sanitizer, worrying public health officials who say the cases could signal a dangerous trend.

Some of the teenagers used salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer, making a potent drink that is similar to a shot of hard liquor.

"All it takes is just a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager," said Cyrus Rangan, director of the toxicology bureau for the county public health department and a medical toxicology consultant for Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "There is no question that it is dangerous."

Although there have been only a handful of cases, Rangan said the practice could easily become a larger problem. Bottles of hand sanitizer are inexpensive and accessible, and teenagers can find distillation instructions on the Internet.

"It is kind of scary that they go to that extent to get a shot of essentially hard liquor," Rangan said.

In addition to the teenagers who intentionally drank the sanitizer, younger children also have accidentally ingested it in the past.

The liquid hand sanitizer is 62% ethyl alcohol and makes a 120-proof liquid. A few drinks can cause a person's speech to slur and stomach to burn, and make people so drunk that they have to be monitored in the emergency room.

Doctors said this is the latest over-the-counter product that teenagers have adapted for a quick high. Teenagers have done the same with mouthwash, cough syrup and even vanilla extract.

"Over the years, they have ingested all sorts of things," said Helen Arbogast, injury prevention coordinator in the trauma program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "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 recent cases involving teenagers surprised doctors. There were no such cases last year. The incidents also raised concerns about the lack of awareness among parents of the risks linked to the popular hygiene product. Even small bottles contain highly concentrated alcohol.

If parents buy hand sanitizer, they should purchase the foam version rather than the gel type because it is harder to extract the alcohol and teenagers may be less likely to drink it, Arbogast said.

Parents also shouldn't leave hand sanitizer around the house and should monitor it like any other liquor or medicine. They should also watch for signs of intoxication, she said.

"When young people are actively and purposely ingesting it, that is when it becomes a real concern," she said.

[glamourcitys]

The real fun begins when they ignorantly drink the stuff that doesn't even have alcohol as an active ingredient.

[illilmicy]

The real fun begins when they ignorantly drink the stuff that doesn't even have alcohol as an active ingredient.

A little benzalkonium chloride and triclosan mix, perhaps? Yum.

[Twelearly]

it reached a sexy point?? WTH?


this looks like a new population control method to me...

[Niiinioa]

it reached a sexy point?? WTH?


this looks like a new population control method to me...

Yeah what a silly way to phrase it!

"sexy point" ?!

[Twelearly]

Yeah what a silly way to phrase it!

"sexy point" ?!

i fixed your thank count for ya

[constanyiskancho]

this looks like a new population control method to me... Only a handful of kids are drinking it.

Millions and millions of people are absorbing it through the skin.

[DoctorIrokezov]

Only a handful of kids are drinking it.

Millions and millions of people are absorbing it through the skin.

i thought that only worked with estrogen cream.

[agracias]

I couldn't help myself, had to go see it done. The salt turns the goop into liquid that you can filter trough a coffee filter. I'm kind of thinking that you could then add a little cooking oil shake vigorously then the lighter alcohol would float to the top so that you could just pour off the top into another container....


You go first and let me know what you think. :P

[malishka1025]

They've had to remove hand sanitizer long ago in the downtown and Native [Indian] centres here long ago because they were drinking it. Now they have to resort to drinking Lysol [seriously!!!} again.

[asSexate]

It wasnt that long ago i was in highschool. I dont know why kids are resorting to such extremes like hand sanitizer, rubbing alc, vanilla extracts, shoving it up their butts to get drunk quicker. I mean, seriously, it wasnt THAT hard to get alcohol back then. Even on a fairly regular basis. I had a closet full of those big, gallon size, alberston brand liquors like vodka, rum, gin, etc.


Drinking wasnt all that to be resorting to these kind of extremes. Seriously, this is like the kids that huffed spray paint and duster to get high. I mean really, is 10 bucks of pot too much that a $6 can of duster is better??

[CathBraunn]

Fucking idiocracy.

[malishka1025]

It wasnt that long ago i was in highschool. I dont know why kids are resorting to such extremes like hand sanitizer, rubbing alc, vanilla extracts, shoving it up their butts to get drunk quicker. I mean, seriously, it wasnt THAT hard to get alcohol back then. Even on a fairly regular basis. I had a closet full of those big, gallon size, alberston brand liquors like vodka, rum, gin, etc.


Drinking wasnt all that to be resorting to these kind of extremes. Seriously, this is like the kids that huffed spray paint and duster to get high. I mean really, is 10 bucks of pot too much that a $6 can of duster is better??

I whole heartedly agree with you; but is it possible that the minds of the kids today are more so under the control of the Satanic cult than we were? Just sayin'....

[asSexate]

I guess, but damn. Im sure this isnt superwide spread. These things rarley are. One school gets into a dumb habit and all of a sudden its a pandemic across the nation.

[Niiinioa]

I guess, but damn. Im sure this isnt superwide spread. These things rarley are. One school gets into a dumb habit and all of a sudden its a pandemic across the nation.

Better hand sanitizer than "jenkem"....


hell maybe that's what got 'em started on hand sanitizer in the first place!

[malishka1025]

Better hand sanitizer than "jenkem"....

I had to look that up. Holy crap -- gross. What I'm wondering, is how was that discovered?

[Annewsded]

Better hand sanitizer than "jenkem"....


hell maybe that's what got 'em started on hand sanitizer in the first place!

My thoughts exactly. When kids resort to getting high off fermented poo, we have failed as a society.

[Saad Khan]

I heard about eat sh!t and die .............but sniffing it??

[DoctorIrokezov]

"In the book Children of AIDS: Africa's Orphan Crisis by Emma Guest, the making of jenkem is described: "fermented human sewage, scraped from pipes and stored in plastic bags for a week or so, until it gives off numbing, intoxicating fumes."[8] The process is similarly described in a 1995 IPS report: "Human excreta is scooped up from the edges of the sewer ponds in old cans and containers which are covered with a polyethylene bag and left to stew or ferment for a week."[4] A 1999 BBC article refers to "the dark brown sludge, gathering up fistfuls and stuffing it into small plastic bottles. They tap the bottles on the ground, taking care to leave enough room for methane to form at the top."[3]

The effects of jenkem inhalation last for around an hour and consist of auditory and visual hallucinations for some users.[3] In 1995, one user told a reporter it is "more potent than cannabis."[4] A 1999 report interviewed a user, who said, "With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life."[3] Fumito Ichinose, an anesthesia specialist in Boston who conducted a study on the effects of hydrogen sulfide gas, or "sewer gas," on mice, informed Salon.com that "the inhalation of gases like those produced from jenkem could result in hypoxia, a lack of oxygen flow to the body that could be alternately euphoric and physically dangerous."[6]"



when i was a teenager we stuck to wine and pot.

i had never heard about Jenkem before.

[NowFloabDow]

Never understood hand sanitizer. All of the sudden people are too lazy to simply wash their hands?

Everyone at work slathers it on like it's vitamins. Sheep lotion.

If there's a sink or bathroom nearby, and you're slathering this crap on your hands, you might as well be wearing a "I'm a moron" tshirt in my eyes.

Drinking it...even better.