Ok kids, here’s my second blog post in two days about health, specifically about things you should NOT be doing to stay healthy. It’s prompted by this article I read from the LA Times about the “trend” of teenagers drinking hand sanitizer to get drunk, and getting alcohol poisoning which then lands them in the hospital. Among the many things you should do to stay healthy include getting enough exercise, rest, and proper nutrient intake. A big no-no for staying healthy is consuming toxic substances. This term “toxic substances” is an umbrella under which falls smoking, eating artificial flavors and colors, and, yep you guessed it, drinking alcohol. Especially something that contains 62% ethyl alcohol, good grief! The LA Times recently reported,
“The California Poison Control System has received 60 reports of teenagers drinking hand sanitizer since 2010, showing the dangerous trend is not unique to Los Angeles.
Hand sanitizer, which has 62% ethyl alcohol, produces a potent drink that can cause alcohol poisoning. Some of the cases involve teenagers who used salt to separate out the alcohol.
There were also 147 cases involving children ages 6 to 12 and 2,180 cases ages 0 to 5, believed to have accidentally ingested the gel, according to poison control service, part of the UC San Francisco’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy.
The vast majority of all the cases statewide were minor and treated at home, but about 50 of the youths went to a hospital or were referred to a hospital for treatment.
In Los Angeles County since March, there have been 16 cases of teenagers requiring medical attention, according to the California Poison Control System.”
To read the rest of the article about what parents can do to keep their kids safe from hand sanitizer click here.
Ok parents, lets go. Time to sit down and have “the talk” with your kids about drugs and alcohol… and hand sanitizer. Let’s get healthy guys! Let’s keep our families healthy and take good care of our bodies and minds. If that means chucking the hand sanitizer in the garbage and instilling a “soap and water for hand-washing only” policy in the house, by all means. Nothin’ wrong with a good ole bar of soap and some water. 
