Doctors in Southern California are warning parents about the new teen trend of drinking alcohol-based hand sanitizer to get drunk. Various sources are reporting on the disturbing new trend after six Southern California teens were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning after drinking hand sanitizer earlier this month.
"It's essentially a shot of hard liquor," said Cyrus Rangan, director of the toxicology bureau for the L.A. County Public Health Department. "All it takes is just a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager. It is kind of scary that they go to that extent to get a shot of essentially hard liquor."
Most hand sanitizer is made of 62 percent ethyl alcohol, which is a similar alcohol content to hard liquor. The trend has become especially apparent on YouTube, where a number of videos show teens drinking the fluid.
"Over the years, they have ingested all sorts of things," said Helen Arbogast of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "Cough syrup had reached a very sexy point where young people were using it.... We want to be sure this doesn't take on the same trend."
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