OT... but important

The following just came to me in my email... I checked it out and it is true
(I hadn't heard of it before, but some of you may have). Just wanted to let
you know in case you hadn't heard of it before.

*hugs*
Gemini
---------

This story was verified at:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp
Yesterday, my youngest daughter, Halle, who is 4, was rushed
to the emergency room by her father for being severely lethargic
and incoherent. He was called to her school by the school secretary
for being 'very VERY sick.' He told me that when he arrived,
Halle was barely sitting in the chair. She couldn't hold her own head up and
when he looked into her eyes, she couldn't focus them. He
immediately scooped her up and rushed her to the ER, and then
called me. When we got there, they ran blood test after blood test
and did x-rays, every test imaginable. Her white blood cell count
was normal, nothing was out of the ordinary. The ER doctor told us
that he had done everything that he could do so he was sending her
to Saint Francis for further tests. Right when we were leaving in
the ambulance, 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. But it makes sense. 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.
When we arrived at Saint Francis, we told the ER doctor there to check her
blood alcohol level, and yes we did get weird looks, but they did it. 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 it 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, but what's to stop middle and high schoolers from ingesting the
stuff?
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.

So please PLEASE don't disregard this because I don't ever want anyone else
to go through what my family and I have gone through.
Please send this to everyone you know who has children or are going to be
having children. It doesn't matter what age.

Not Likely wrote:
The following just came to me in my email... I checked it out and it
is true (I hadn't heard of it before, but some of you may have). Just
wanted to let you know in case you hadn't heard of it before.

*hugs*
Gemini
---------

This story was verified at:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp

Thanks Gemini...I had not seen this so will pass it around at work!

Thanks
Donna

On Jul 10, 3:52 am, "Not Likely" notinthislifetime@yougottabejoking
wrote:
The following just came to me in my email... I checked it out and it is true
(I hadn't heard of it before, but some of you may have). Just wanted to let
you know in case you hadn't heard of it before.
snip of warnings about hand sanitizer

I tend to avoid them anyhow, Gem, unless I have a sneezing kind of
cold.
They are not good for your skin - very drying. As long as you wash
your
hands regularly, you shouldn't need them.

Higs,
Katherine

This has been going around for a while. Snopes.com gives it a TRUE
status but I'm skeptical.

The quantity of hand sanitizer even a small child would have to suck
down to achieve "alcohol poisoning" is quite large, IMO. A kid who
licks her hands after using the stuff most likely won't ingest enough
to more than cause an upset stomach or maybe produce vomiting. Quite
frankly I've tasted it and it's nasty - even the scented hand
sanitizers are foul on the tongue. Show me a preschooler who will
intentionally consume something that doesn't taste good and I'll eat
this sweater I'm knitting.

Then there are the studies showing that a brisk rub under running
water - even without soap, mind - removes more germs than hand
sanitizer gel...

wrote in message
ups.com...
This has been going around for a while. Snopes.com gives it a TRUE
status but I'm skeptical.

So am I..

The quantity of hand sanitizer even a small child would have to suck
down to achieve "alcohol poisoning" is quite large, IMO.

Quite.

A kid who
licks her hands after using the stuff most likely won't ingest enough
to more than cause an upset stomach or maybe produce vomiting. Quite
frankly I've tasted it and it's nasty - even the scented hand
sanitizers are foul on the tongue. Show me a preschooler who will
intentionally consume something that doesn't taste good and I'll eat
this sweater I'm knitting.

I wish I could ... :-)

Then there are the studies showing that a brisk rub under running
water - even without soap, mind - removes more germs than hand
sanitizer gel...

But running water isn't always available to visitors in a ward - at least
not the ones I've been in. Alcohol gel is fitted to ever bed's locker - but
I've only seen me and doctors using it.

Mary

I am also extremely skeptical of this story. Yes, as Snopes.com says,
ingesting the hand sanitizer can be dangerous to children. But the child
would have to drink/eat the gel before it evaporates. It evaporates pretty
quickly once it is rubbed on the hands. I very much doubt that a child could
get enough of the gel in them by licking almost dry or dry hands to cause
that degree of illness. Also, a blood alcohol level of 85% would be
impossible. For example, a blood alcohol level of .10 (Which is the standard
way of stating it) is 1/10th of 1%.
It can happen, but it is unusual for an ER to transfer an unstable patient
to another ER.
Anyway- considering the problems it can cause, I would hope that a teacher
closely supervises a young child anytime a hand gel is used.
Gemini, Thank you for bringing the problem to our attention. I will pass
the warning on to family members with young children.
Marilyn




wrote in message
ups.com...
This has been going around for a while. Snopes.com gives it a TRUE
status but I'm skeptical.

The quantity of hand sanitizer even a small child would have to suck
down to achieve "alcohol poisoning" is quite large, IMO. A kid who
licks her hands after using the stuff most likely won't ingest enough
to more than cause an upset stomach or maybe produce vomiting. Quite
frankly I've tasted it and it's nasty - even the scented hand
sanitizers are foul on the tongue. Show me a preschooler who will
intentionally consume something that doesn't taste good and I'll eat
this sweater I'm knitting.

Then there are the studies showing that a brisk rub under running
water - even without soap, mind - removes more germs than hand
sanitizer gel...

"Katherine" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 10, 3:52 am, "Not Likely" notinthislifetime@yougottabejoking
wrote:
snip of warnings about hand sanitizer

I tend to avoid them anyhow, Gem, unless I have a sneezing kind of
cold. They are not good for your skin - very drying. As long as you wash
your hands regularly, you shouldn't need them.

Matthew and I were just talking the other day about a pet store that I like
to drop in to visit from time to time... gotta see little baby puppies once
in a while, you know, even though my Casper makes my heart smile. )
Anyway, they don't want people touching the puppies anymore. They used to
have a bottle of the hand sanitizer stuff right beside the cages with a sign
that asked people to use the stuff before touching the puppies so they
wouldn't get sick from any germs you might bring in with you. I was
wondering if perhaps the puppies started getting sick from people actually
using the stuff, considering that most baby puppies are teething and love to
chew on fingers. *shrug* Just a thought.

*hugs*
Gem

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

wrote in message
ups.com...
This has been going around for a while. Snopes.com gives it a TRUE
status but I'm skeptical.

So am I..

*shrug* Sorry, just passing along what I thought might be important. I
have no idea of how much or little someone would have to ingest, nor do I
have any idea how horrid the stuff tastes... I'll take your (both of you)
word for it though. )

*hugs*
Gemini

"Marilyn" fcorliss at comcast dot net wrote in message
. ..
I am also extremely skeptical of this story.
snipped
Anyway- considering the problems it can cause, I would hope that a teacher
closely supervises a young child anytime a hand gel is used.

Yes, you would think that anything a child could potentially put in their
mouths that *might* have problems with it, would be supervised carefully by
teachers. I can remember a couple of kids I went to school with eating
paste (that thick white stuff) and the teachers telling them to stop. I had
a *tiny* bit on my fingers one day (when I was little I *hated* getting
anything on my hands and had to wash them off (actually I *still* hate
having my hands sticky)... my Mom used to put a pan of water outside for me
while I was making mudpies. LOL) and touched it to my tongue to see what
the attraction was... it was pretty gross as I remember, so I have no idea
why some kids liked eating the stuff. p~~

Gemini, Thank you for bringing the problem to our attention. I will pass
the warning on to family members with young children.
Marilyn

You're welcome! ) That's what I was thinking... anyone with little
children would like to know about it for sure. Whether it tastes gross or
not, some children still find attaction to putting some things in their
mouths that do not belong there.

*hugs*
Gemini

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:41:36 -0700, "
wrote:

This has been going around for a while. Snopes.com gives it a TRUE
status but I'm skeptical.

The quantity of hand sanitizer even a small child would have to suck
down to achieve "alcohol poisoning" is quite large, IMO.

According to Snopes a young child would have to ingest one to two
ounces to have a serious reaction to the alcohol. That's a lot of hand
sanitizer. It's a lot more than what a child would have left on the
hands after washing. The Snopes article said that the teacher
mentioned in the email squirted the sanitizer on the child's hand and
left the child to rub her hands, but she ate the stuff instead. First,
the teacher obviously squirted way too much. Second, she should have
supervised the cleaning process instead of leaving it up to the child.

The lesson is to use a small quantity of product and to supervise the
child until all the alcohol has evaporated or been rubbed into the
skin. The Snopes article also says that an independent study has shown
that families with children who regularly used hand sanitizer had 59%
fewer gastrointestinal infections that families who were just advised
to wash frequently with soap and water. I never use hand sanitizer
except occasionally when I'm on a trip and don't have easy access to
soap and water. However, my daughter uses it. I'll tell her to be
careful with it, but I wouldn't suggest that she stop using it. Lots
of other cosmetic products have alcohol in them as well.
--
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.