I heard that kids are getting drunk on hand sanitizer at school? Is it true, and if so, what’s the TDSB doing about it?
Rumours of kids getting hopped up on antibacterial gel recently stoked a mini–media storm. Thankfully, the TDSB hasn’t received any reports of sanitizer sipping. However, it’s not an unwarranted concern. According to the laws of duh, if it has alcohol in it, teens will imbibe it—why bother raiding the liquor cabinet when a swig of 120-proof “booze ooze,” as the kids are calling it, will get the job done quicker? One good reason is the vile taste. Purell, the TDSB’s brand of choice, contains a bittering agent to make it unpalatable—imagine a dish soap and vodka cocktail (with a twist if it’s lemon scented). But teens rarely let flavour get in the way of some good, er, clean fun. To prevent furtive nipping, the TDSB distributes bottles no bigger than 350 millilitres and recommends teachers keep them at their desks. Still, it doesn’t take much to get soused—a disconcerting notion, given that the stuff has become as ubiquitous as pompoms at a pep rally.
Over 20,000 children got toxic poisoning in 2007 from drinking hand sanitizers. ANd , of course, that’s still going on today. Traditional alcohol-based hand sanitizers like Purell create more of a problem than they solve.
There’s a new hand sanitizer, Zytrel XP, that does not have alcohol as an active ingredient. It actually lasts (kills germs) almost 4 hours longer than Purell and the version that contains a moisturizer, actually makes your hands feel softer and you can avoid the Purell (alcohol) rash.
In the interest of honesty and transparency, I would like to point out that I have been a consultant to the company that makes Zytrel XP, BioDefense Solutions. But I’ve seen the independent lab tests that prove Zytrel Xp id far superior to Purell.
In reference to how much alcohol in traditional alcohol-based sanitizers like Purell it would take to constitute toxic poisoning, Fox News reported that it only took a teaspoon to create a real problem for children who ingested it.
I hate to be unemotional about this issue but my first thought was ‘Thin the herd’, regarding kids who deliberately injest hand santitizer, not the toddlers who don’t know any better. (Even my dogs know better than to want to lick my hand after I have used Purell.) Kids who will drink vile-tasting hand santizer – after all it doesn’t come in maple syrup flavour – are probably the same kids who will sniff glue and OD on OTC cold medication. Sadly, there is only so much that society can do to protect destructive teens from themselves.
How very sad…children are becoming so idiotic these days…must be all those video games…