Don't drink the hand sanitizer

Gel hand sanitizer is one of the most useful products that has come our way in recent years. It has been established that the use of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer gel significantly reduces the spread of infections in the home, in schools, and at the workplace, but the stuff is definitely 'for external use only.'

You're certainly not supposed to drink hand sanitizer, but that is exactly what at least two men did recently. An article on WebMD.com tells about two cases that were reported in the most recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The first involved a 49-year-old prison inmate in Maryland who got drunk one night by drinking a hand sanitizer containing ethyl alcohol.

Other inmates and prison staff reportedly saw the man drink from a gallon of the sanitizer over the course of an evening... The man, who hadn't had any other alcohol or drugs that night, recovered with medical care.

The second case involved a 43-year-old alcoholic in Cincinnati who was admitted to a hospital for chest pain.

By the time the man was treated and discharged, he was delirious.

He was readmitted for tests, but before the results came back, "the patient was seen in the bathroom drinking the alcohol-based hand wash from its dispenser," write Ashkan Emadi, MD, PhD, and LeAnn Coberly, MD, of the University of Cincinnati.

"When asked why he ingested the hand cleaner, he pointed to the label, which read, 'Active ingredient 63% v/v isopropyl alcohol.' He explained that this percentage is higher than that in vodka," write Emadi and Coberly.

An Associated Press article about these same incidents quotes Dr. Suzanne Doyon, director of the Maryland Poison Control Center, and co-author of the article in the New England Journal of Medicine:

While the hand sanitizer contains other chemicals in smaller amounts, it is primarily the same type of alcohol found in liquor, and acts on the body in the same way, said Doyon.

"I don't think a lot of people realize these are ethanol containing, or alcohol containing. They are really no different than a really concentrated liquor," Doyon said.

However, other types of hand sanitizers contain isopropyl alcohol, which is metabolized differently by the body, and has different health effects, she said [SeattlePI.com].

The authors say that they wrote the article in the medical journal in order to raise awareness about the potential for misuse of hand sanitizers by certain individuals.