Following a recently analysis by the Georgia Poison Center, CNN shares a story of a six-year-old who became “dangerously drunk” after swallowing three or four squirts of strawberry hand sanitizer at school.
According to the Georgia Poison Center, an increase of nearly 400% calls in connection to children under 12 ingesting hand sanitizer has overloaded U.S. poison control center hotlines since 2010.
According to the center’s director, Dr. Gaylord Lopez, “Kids are getting into these products more frequently, and unfortunately, there’s a percentage of them going to the emergency room.”
When Nhaijah Russell, 6, recently arrived at the emergency room at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, Georgia, her blood-alcohol level was .179 — “twice what’s considered legally drunk in an adult, according to Dr. Chris Ritchey, who treated her,” CNN reports.
Due to the alcohol, Russell also was having trouble walking and had fallen and hit her head. She was watched overnight by doctors for signs of brain trauma.
According to CNN, “The amount of alcohol in hand sanitizer ranges from 45% to 95%. Ingesting even small amounts — as little as two or three squirts in some cases — can cause alcohol poisoning. By comparison, wine and beer contain about 12% and 5% alcohol, Lopez said.”