Don’t drink hand sanitizer: Poison center calls up 20% during pandemic, CDC says
A preschool-aged girl was taken to the hospital after she drank an unknown amount of hand sanitizer out of a 64-ounce bottle, fell and hit her head, the Centers for Disease Control said.
Her blood alcohol level was .27% — over 3 times the legal limit in most states, according to the CDC. The little girl recovered and was released 48 hours later, but her case illustrates the sharp increase in poisoning reported during the rise of the coronavirus in the United States.
Between January and March there were 45,550 poisonings reported to U.S. poison control centers , which is a 20% increase from years passed, the CDC reported. The rise in cases directly correlates with increased media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Children ages 5 and younger, who were poisoned by disinfectants like hand sanitizer, made up nearly half of calls involving disinfecetants in that time period, the CDC reported. Over 80% of calls involved people ingesting disinfectants, according to the CDC.
People are also calling more to report poisonings involving cleaners like bleach — more than 28,000 calls in that three-month period involved cleaners, News 4 San Antonio reported. The CDC cited a case where an adult woman soaked her produce in bleach, vinegar and hot water, and ended up in the hospital because she inhaled the toxic fumes.
The CDC says people should not wash produce with anything other than water, not even soap.
Researchers say they can’t show a direct link between chemical exposures and the coronavirus pandemic yet, but the correlation is alarming, Science Alert reported. The biggest surge in calls to poison control centers occurred at the beginning of March this year, according to Science Alert.
In Oregon, one of the most reported issues was people mixing bleach with water in a random container, like a soda can or water bottle, and leave it out in the open, KOIN 6 reported. Another household member will drink the solution, thinking it’s just water, according to KOIN 6.
“Make sure you don’t take any cleaners and mix them in a can or cup or something that would be mistaken as a beverage,” Dr. Robert Hendrickson with Oregon Health and Science University Emergency Medicine, told KOIN. “We see people mixing up or diluting cleaners and putting them in a soda can or bottle or a cup.”
The phenomenon is seen all over the country right now, said Dr. Diane Calello, the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, and an author of the CDC’s latest report. She said she recently took a call from someone who had mistakenly wiped her face and hands with a powerful disinfectant, the New York Times reported. She also took several calls from parents whose small children somehow ingested hand sanitizer, according to NYT.
“People are home and they are frightened and they want to get their home and their food as clean as possible,” Dr. Calello told NYT. “Common sense can take a back seat… Educating people about what is safe is the key, but I have a hunch the numbers will go up in April.”
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Don’t drink hand sanitizer: Poison center calls up 20% during pandemic, CDC says."