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Marc Giauque, KSL Newsradio New warnings are surfacing about something you may be sending your child to school with. It turns out some people are trying to use hand sanitizing gel to get drunk.
So far it's mostly turned up as a problem in lock up facilities like jails, adults who know what they're doing and desperate to get alcohol anyway they can. And in the case of hand sanitizers, the active ingredient, Ethyl Alcohol, is in the 60 percent range. Marti Malhero of the Utah Poison Control Center says it contains more alcohol than liquor.
Marti Malhero, Utah Poison Control Center: "That would be like 120 proof. I believe that the purest of drinking alcohol is around 90-100 proof."
Malhero says can also be a danger to children who may accidentally take it, because the smaller the body, the higher risk of alcohol poisoning. And if you send your children to school with the stuff, she says it may be good advice to send the very small containers.
