Children getting drunk on hand sanitizer, health officials warn

Poison control centers are warning parents that growing numbers of children are getting drunk by drinking alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

“Kids are getting into these products more frequently and, unfortunately, there are a percentage of them going to the emergency room,” Tama Sawyer, director of the University of Kansas Hospital poison control center, said Monday.

The KU Hospital center, which serves all of Kansas, has handled 153 calls so far this year involving children under 12 who have ingested hand sanitizer.

Since 2010, poison control center hotlines nationwide have seen a nearly 400 percent increase in such calls, according to new analysis by the Georgia Poison Center, CNN reported.

“It doesn’t take very much, less than a tablespoon, to make a child extremely drunk,” Sawyer said. “It’s the same concern you would have with any alcohol product.”

Young children may be enticed to drink sanitizers because of their scent, Sawyer said. However, older children may be consuming sanitizers deliberately. Parents should be ready to question their children if they find them carrying large bottles of sanitizer in their backpack or purse, she said.

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Children getting drunk on hand sanitizer, health officials warn."