Researchers have found that these alcohol-based, scented products often tempt young kids to swallow the substance – leading to serious consequences
That key-chain sanitizer bottle you may have latched onto your children’s school backpacks may not be a good idea after all, according to US scientists. Exposure to sanitisers have resulted in adverse health effects like abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting among children, scientists said.
Researchers have found that these alcohol-based, scented products often tempt young kids to swallow the substance – leading to serious consequences. The US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention have identified serious consequences, including apnea, acidosis and coma in young children who swallowed alcohol-based hand sanitisers.
Data at hand
To characterise paediatric alcohol hand sanitiser exposures in the US, data reported by poison centres among children aged 12 years during 2011 to 2014 were analysed.
Hand sanitiser exposures were defined as a poison, with the centre call reporting an exposure to either alcohol hand sanitiser exposure or a non-alcohol sanitiser product. Calls reporting co-exposures to other agents were excluded to minimise confounding effects.
The study found that majority of intentional exposures to alcohol hand sanitisers occurred in children aged 6-12 years.
During 2011 2014, a total of 70,669 hand sanitiser exposures in children aged 12 years were reported, of which 65,293 were 92 per cent alcohol exposures and 5,376 were 8 per cent non alcohol exposures.
“Caregivers and health care providers need to be aware of the potential risks and dangers associated with improper use of hand sanitiser products among children and the need to use proper safety precautions to protect children,” researchers said.
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