henric
04-27-2012, 08:48 PM
26/04/2012 8:00:00 AM
by Nevil Hunt
Teens and alcohol are a volatile mix and now some American health officials are worried hand sanitizer is becoming a drink of choice.
Six teens in California are the latest to be hospitalized after drinking hand sanitizer.
The liquid sanitizer is anywhere from 62 to 65 per cent ethyl alcohol, the same ingredient as beer, wine and liquor.
"A few swallows is all it takes to get a person to get the intoxicated effects of alcohol," a doctor at a Los Angeles children's hospital told a reporter.
He added that teen drinking of liquid hand sanitizer appears to be "a rapidly emerging trend."
California has seen 2,600 cases since 2010 and another staffer at the same hospital said hand sanitizer consumption is happening in all parts of the United States.
The numbers being reported are still small, but a trend can take off, especially if it lands on the Internet in a big way.
Along with alcohol, the teens drinking hand sanitizer also get a big serving of inactive ingredients like cyclomethicone, cocamidopropyl pg-dimonium chloride phosphate, tocopheryl acetate, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate and a drop or two of artificial fragrance. Makes tequila sound almost appetizing.
The sanitizer drinking problem appears less often in Canadian media and that may be because of our liquor laws. Canadians can get a legal drink two or three years before American kids, who must be 21 to buy alcohol.
Easier access to beer, wine and booze – legally or via an older friend or sibling – means Canadian teens can experiment with alcohol intended for human consumption.
In Europe there is an even more liberal approach to alcohol, and kids barely in their teens may get wine with dinner, albeit watered down. Because those children get a more gradual introduction to alcohol, they appear to be able to take it or leave it as they get older.
That's in stark contrast to the U.S., where youths have to wait until they are 21 – maybe away at college or university – and then lose control.
The theory of harm reduction says that if the rules surrounding an issue are doing more harm than good, then the rules should be changed. That's why many jurisdictions give intravenous drug users clean needles and crack addicts new pipes. If we didn't, more addicts would get communicable diseases; ones that will take gobs of tax money to treat and could be passed on to you or me.
In Ontario, downtown liquor stores open early as a form of harm reduction. Better to give alcoholics access to relatively safe bottled booze than have them drink mouthwash or aftershave. They may get drunk, which is bad, but they are less likely to permanently damage or kill themselves, which is worse.
The U.S. could learn a few things from Europe and Canada.
Even if the U.S. isn't willing to consider a change to its drinking age to 21, American parents should help their kids form a healthier relationship with booze. Better to let your kids experience alcohol in controlled doses and a controlled environment than have them feel the need to drink to excess when they get the chance, or worse still, drink hand sanitizer because that's all that's available.
Should hand sanitizer be better controlled at the point of sale? Do you think drinking hand sanitizer could become common in Canada?
by Nevil Hunt
Teens and alcohol are a volatile mix and now some American health officials are worried hand sanitizer is becoming a drink of choice.
Six teens in California are the latest to be hospitalized after drinking hand sanitizer.
The liquid sanitizer is anywhere from 62 to 65 per cent ethyl alcohol, the same ingredient as beer, wine and liquor.
"A few swallows is all it takes to get a person to get the intoxicated effects of alcohol," a doctor at a Los Angeles children's hospital told a reporter.
He added that teen drinking of liquid hand sanitizer appears to be "a rapidly emerging trend."
California has seen 2,600 cases since 2010 and another staffer at the same hospital said hand sanitizer consumption is happening in all parts of the United States.
The numbers being reported are still small, but a trend can take off, especially if it lands on the Internet in a big way.
Along with alcohol, the teens drinking hand sanitizer also get a big serving of inactive ingredients like cyclomethicone, cocamidopropyl pg-dimonium chloride phosphate, tocopheryl acetate, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate and a drop or two of artificial fragrance. Makes tequila sound almost appetizing.
The sanitizer drinking problem appears less often in Canadian media and that may be because of our liquor laws. Canadians can get a legal drink two or three years before American kids, who must be 21 to buy alcohol.
Easier access to beer, wine and booze – legally or via an older friend or sibling – means Canadian teens can experiment with alcohol intended for human consumption.
In Europe there is an even more liberal approach to alcohol, and kids barely in their teens may get wine with dinner, albeit watered down. Because those children get a more gradual introduction to alcohol, they appear to be able to take it or leave it as they get older.
That's in stark contrast to the U.S., where youths have to wait until they are 21 – maybe away at college or university – and then lose control.
The theory of harm reduction says that if the rules surrounding an issue are doing more harm than good, then the rules should be changed. That's why many jurisdictions give intravenous drug users clean needles and crack addicts new pipes. If we didn't, more addicts would get communicable diseases; ones that will take gobs of tax money to treat and could be passed on to you or me.
In Ontario, downtown liquor stores open early as a form of harm reduction. Better to give alcoholics access to relatively safe bottled booze than have them drink mouthwash or aftershave. They may get drunk, which is bad, but they are less likely to permanently damage or kill themselves, which is worse.
The U.S. could learn a few things from Europe and Canada.
Even if the U.S. isn't willing to consider a change to its drinking age to 21, American parents should help their kids form a healthier relationship with booze. Better to let your kids experience alcohol in controlled doses and a controlled environment than have them feel the need to drink to excess when they get the chance, or worse still, drink hand sanitizer because that's all that's available.
Should hand sanitizer be better controlled at the point of sale? Do you think drinking hand sanitizer could become common in Canada?