While hand sanitizers are deemed quite convenient for most people on-the-go, it's still hazardous - especially for kids.
Unfortunately, this fact has been seemingly disregarded by parents until now: a recent statistical data indicates that more and more kids are found to drink little to an entire bottle of hand sanitizers every year. According to American Association of Poison Control Centers, poison centers all over the United States have already received 3,766 incidents of kids aged 12 and younger drinking hand sanitizers. It's worth noting that these were only recorded starting January until February 28 of this year.
Further detailed on the same press release by AAPCC, it was stressed that hand sanitizers are not meant for kids to play with or even access without any parental supervision. A bottle of hand sanitizer contains up to 95 percent of alcohol, with most of them having up to 60% of ethyl alcohol - stronger than other alcohol-based products like wine and beer, which only have up to 10% of alcohol concentration. Thus, ingesting hand sanitizers can truly be lethal for kids due to greater chances of alcohol poisoning.
So, what can you do - as parents or someone who are close to kids' hearts - in order to prevent this kind of unfortunate incident from happening? As A.V. Club reported, kids who ingested hand sanitizers likely did it because these smelled nice. This is why parents should regularly check if any of their things are just lying around or within easy reach. Doing that is the best prevention kids can have against hazardous things or from doing something dangerous.
For parents, let this be an example: the most obvious reason why you shouldn't just leave your kids unsupervised. Always remember, hand sanitizers are meant to keep yourselves clean while on-the-go - and not for drinking.
