Hand sanitiser is a common and fairly innocuous household item.
But what many may not know is that it’s an alcohol rub. It’s poisonous and should be stored with care and caution.
The Age newspaper reports that a three-year-old suffered alcohol poisoning from hand sanitiser. "Last year, the toddler was taken to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital in an altered state of consciousness. Her parents said she had been playing with a bottle of hand sanitiser with her one-year-old sibling before she fell ill.
"After examining the child, doctors found she had a level of alcohol in her blood that was equivalent to five times the legal driving limit for adults."
Most hand sanitisers contain anywhere between 65 to 80 percent pure alcohol. While this makes them extremely effective at killing germs and pathogens, it means they are toxic when consumed.
The alcohol content also makes hand sanitisers highly flammable.
This nasty accident is a warning for all parents. Hand sanitiser is something we might be getting too familiar with, and our young kids need to be supervised when using it.
Do you use hand sanitiser? How do you store it safely away from the kids?
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