CLEVELAND – It’s the new way some young people are getting a dangerous high: drinking hand sanitizer.
“A patient who is so intoxicated of these substances can come in with a, possibly with a seizure. It depends on how long and how much they’ve been using these substances,” Dr. Cyrus Rangan from Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles told KTLA.
KTLA reported that in California, hospitals have seen about 2,000 cases of kids being hospitalized from drinking hand sanitizer since 2010.
Doctors held a news conference at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.
Doctors said kids have found ways to separate the alcohol from the gel, and a small bottle can be the equivalent of several shots of 120-proof grain alcohol, according to a report from KTLA.
“If you have hand sanitizer at home and you notice that the level of the hand sanitizer has decreased quite significantly over a short period of time, that may be one red flag that may be used to determine that, maybe, your children are getting into it in an illicit fashion,” Rangan told KTLA News.
FOX 8 News has learned at least one person was recently hospitalized in Cleveland from drinking this stuff.
This isn’t the first time young people have turned to household items for a buzz.
Mouthwash also contains alcohol, and then there was the cough syrup trend.
We asked young people in Cleveland if they had heard of anyone drinking hand sanitizer.
“I’ve heard of students that have used mouthwash or certain cough syrups in attempts to feel that type of buzz but I’ve never actually met these students themselves,” said college student Samir Shah.
“Seems like drinking hand sanitizer – easy way to kill yourself,” Nick Kirsch said.
(KTLA News staff contributed to this report)
