Doctors warn parents: Kids using hand sanitizer to get drunk - KOAM TV 7

Doctors warn parents: Kids using hand sanitizer to get drunk

Joplin health officials warn about a new trend among teens that involves drinking hand sanitizer to get drunk.

Liquid hand sanitizer contains about 65% ethanol and officials say just a few squirts of the substance is equal to two shots of alcohol.

Several teens in California have recently been hospitalized with alcohol poisoning after ingesting sanitizer and while it's not a big problem yet here in the Four States  doctors are asking parents to be aware.

"Basically, if you notice your child with slurred speech or acting unusual and the hand sanitizer is disappearing more quickly than you would expect, you would basically treat the child as if he were intoxicated," says Jim Riscoe, M.D., a Mercy Hospital Emergency Room physician.

Doctors say long-term consumption of sanitizer could lead to brain, liver and kidney damage.