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​Are punk kids getting drunk off hand sanitizer?

From 2011 to 2014, there were over 70,000 cases of children under 12 using hand sanitizer improperly, including putting it into their mouths.

Hand sanitizer

According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the children swallowed the germ-killing goo in most of those cases.

It sounds like one of those classic preteen let’s-get-hammered-in-any-way-possible situations, but the reported effects of swallowing hand sanitizer present a much more sinister and dangerous problem.

In five cases, the child went into a coma, and in three cases, the child suffered a seizure. The good news: Nobody died.

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The Verge reports that these extreme responses most likely occurred when the children ate the hand sanitizer, and while in younger kids this is almost certainly an accident, the study from the CDC indicates “that older children might be deliberately misusing or abusing alcohol hand sanitizers.”

While the report makes it seem like having a seizure or a coma as a result of hand sanitizer consumption is uncommon, there were still numerous instances of vomiting and stomach pain reported to the National Poison Data System.

The CDC recommends using soap and water to wash your hands whenever possible.

Aside from their alarming effects in cases of extreme abuse, hand sanitizers don’t kill every germ, and the ones they leave behind can often become more resistant to anti-bacterials and similar substances.

Best to keep the stuff out of your medicine cabinet and maybe out of your house altogether.

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