Chemicals

[Gwizz]

Subject: WARNING: HAND SANITIZER IS FATAL TO TODDLERS IF LICKED OFF:

I've shortened this memo a bunch.-----------
...........her teacher came to the ER and, after questioning Halle's classmates, we found out that she had licked hand sanitizer off her hand. Hand sanitizer, of all things. These days they have all kinds of different scents and
when you have a curious child, they are going to put all kinds of things
into their mouths. The results showed her blood alcohol level was 85% -- six hours after we first took her. There's no telling what it would have been if we would have requested the test at the first ER. Since then, her school and a few surrounding schools have taken this out of the classrooms of all the lower grade
classes.

After doing research on the Internet, we have found out that it only takes 3
squirts of the stuff to be fatal in a toddler. For her blood alcohol level
to be so high was to compare someone her size to drinking something 120
proof.

[thegrindre]

Very interesting, Gwizz.

[Hawk]

Not to mention the fact that those sanitizer lotions aren't discriminate about what bacteria they kill. It kills good and bad alike.
It can also aid in reducing the body's own immune system to some bacteria.

[thegrindre]

I've heard that, too, Ed and is the reason I've yet to use them.
Soap and hot water kills what is necessary in most all cases, btw. I've heard this from many doctors and nurses, even my mom who, was a nurse, in the Coast Guard in WWII. (My she rest in peace.)
Even had a doctor friend tell me that soap and hot water will clean a wound so well that if you keep cleaning it out, you won't need to see a doctor.
I have honestly applied this to many a wound in my younger days and using butterfly band aids to hold the skin together. Never had to pay a doctor one red cent and my scares are very minimal.

[Gandar]

Isn't it weird, to buy a bottle of Jack Daniels you have to be 18 to 21 years of age depending on where you live, but here they are putting 120 proof alchahol in front of little kids without a thought. Hand sanitizers are not necessary for young kids, its very difficult to build up an immune system if it never has to do any work. So being ultra cautious would mean that you are putting your child at a greater risk. That being said there are places where they are very effective and should always be used.
If ever you go to the doctor office, or to the hospital, make sure you hit that sanitizer on the way in and on the way out BOTH WAYS, lots of sick people visit doctors, its also the reason your doctor is washing her hands all the time, doctors are pretty smart people.

[KevinL]

The results showed her blood alcohol level was 85% -- six hours after we first took her.

Uhm... 85% alcohol? I think that was supposed to be .085% ? Anything above .20% makes you deathly sick.

[Gwizz]

I'm not sure what an 85% count means. But, in the part I left out, it said that HAND SANITIZER can kill just about anything, with enough exposure. I plan to ask my doctors about it tomorrow.

It seems to me for the company that produces it, it puts them way off base.

[Polynesia Rail]

This is impossible! 85%??? I agree with KevinL.

[nedfumpkin]

Actually, the whole thing sounds like urban legend.

[Hawk]

My apologies folks. Gwizz was talking about sanitizer gels and wipes, which do in fact contain 67% ethyl alcohol and can be harmful to children.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp

I was talking about anti-bacterial soaps.

http://www.webmd.com/news/20080529/safe ... erial-soap

[Gwizz]

KevinL, you were correct.

Today, I forgot to ask the doctor; But later in the day I asked a nurse that knew about the problem. She reached over and picked up a tube of gel and read the warning on the back to us. She said that labs and some doctors normally list a blood count as a percentage. Medical people simply know that 85% means .085. She said this blood count can be serious problem for a youngster or even an adult. She said medical people use it because it is very affective at killing germs.

I didn't know about the danger it processed.

[KevinL]

85% = .85

.085 = 8.5%

The blood alcohol content where you are considered legally drunk in the United States is .08%. Not .08 and not 8%. Its .08%.

Sorry to nit pic.

[nedfumpkin]

I'll go one further and go all Canuck metric on you. The legal interpretation is .08 ml alcohol per 100 ml of blood.

[Hawk]

Actually, here in Georgia the legal limit is .01%, or 1 drink, believe it or not. They just changed it to that about 2 years ago. Part of the zero tolerance hoopla.

[Gwizz]

I've questioned a number of people that I know about blood/alcohol counts.
Few knew much about the numbers. One knew a lot about it having been being drunk in the past.
I've never been drunk, but I now know a bit more about the subject.
Thanks for the education.

[Polynesia Rail]

Actually, here in Georgia the legal limit is .01%, or 1 drink, believe it or not. They just changed it to that about 2 years ago. Part of the zero tolerance hoopla.

I wish I would live in the US. But i would probably live in Southern New Mexico or on Santa Catalina island!