Table of contents:
- Misuse of hand sanitizer to get drunk
- Alcohol in hand sanitizer
- The dangers of drinking hand sanitizers
The use of hand sanitizer (hand sanitizer) is often misused for drinking. Instead of being used to clean hands, some people consume hand sanitizers directly. With a low price and easy to obtain, hand sanitizers are finally being looked at as an alternative to alcoholic drinks. What are the dangers when someone drinks a hand sanitizer? Can it cause death? Check out the following explanation.
Misuse of hand sanitizer to get drunk
Hand sanitizers are not intended for consumption. This hand sanitizer can only be used outside the body, namely for the skin. However, some people abuse hand sanitizers because they are considered to have an intoxicating effect such as drinking liquor.
Instead of being intoxicating, the high alcohol content found in most hand sanitizers poses a dangerous risk if used inappropriately. This abuse is apparently not new. Quoted from the New York Times, in 2015 there were more than a thousand people with disabilities accidentally drinking hand sanitizer. Two of them were reported dead.
To make matters worse, most of the victims who drink hand sanitizers are young children and teenagers who are still prohibited from buying alcoholic drinks. Because of this, they chose a hand sanitizer that was easier to obtain and had a much higher alcohol content than beer or other alcoholic beverages.
Alcohol in hand sanitizer
Hand sanitizers generally contain ethanol alcohol that has been mixed in the form of a gel. Many hand sanitizer manufacturers claim their products are effective at killing 99.9 percent of germs on the hands.
You should also know, to kill various bacteria and viruses, these cleaning products contain at least 60 to 70 percent alcohol. There are even some brands that use alcoholic active ingredients up to 90 percent.
Try to compare it to a bottle of beer that contains only 5 percent alcohol or liquor like wine which contains 12 percent alcohol. The difference is very far, right? Not to mention, the type of alcohol used to mix hand sanitizers is much more dangerous than the alcohol in liquor.
When you drink only 44 milliliters of hand sanitizer (almost a small bottle), the effect is many times more dangerous than the effect of a glass of alcoholic drink. In the body, alcohol affects the nervous system, creates a more relaxed sensation in the mind, and dulls the brain's ability to think clearly.
The dangers of drinking hand sanitizers
Accidentally consuming small amounts of hand sanitizer, for example because of licking your hands after using hand sanitizers, generally does not cause any side effects. However, if you drink enough, the side effects that can arise are nausea and vomiting.
Meanwhile, if someone is deliberately consuming hand sanitizer to get drunk, the risk is alcohol poisoning. Signs of alcohol poisoning in hand sanitizers can include dizziness and unclear chatter.
According to Alexander Garrard, a toxicology expert who serves as director of the Washington Poison Center in the United States, getting drunk with hand sanitizer is very dangerous. In addition to severe poisoning, drinking hand sanitizers can cause respiratory problems, loss of consciousness (fainting), coma, and death.
This risk will increase if teenagers or children consume hand sanitizers. This is because the liver (liver) in children is not perfect as in adults. The liver's ability to filter and remove toxins that enter the body is still limited. As a result, the chemicals and alcohol in the hand sanitizer that are consumed will actually be absorbed by the body, not thrown away.
