Hand sanatizer warning

@sunshine4 (8703)
United States
June 11, 2007 7:47pm CST
I didn't realize just how dangerous hand sanitizer can be! Has been verified: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp I know we all use this in our classrooms on a daily basis, and I just wanted to encourage everyone to be sure and monitor the children with it. I honestly never even thought of this being an issue....scary! Ok. I don't know where to begin because the last 2 days of my life have been such a blur. Yesterday, My youngest daughter Halle who is 4, was rushed to the emergancy room by her father for being severely lethargic and incoherent. He was called to her school by the school secretary for being "very VERY sick." He told me that when he arrived that Halle was barely sitting in the chair. She couldn't hold her own head up and when he lookd into her eyes, she couldn't focus them. He immediately called me after he scooped her up and rushed her to the ER. When we got there, they ran blood test after blood test and did x-rays, every test imaginable. Her white blood cell count was normal, nothing was out of the ordinary. The ER doctor told us that he had done everything that he could do so he was sending her to Saint Francis for further test. Right when we were leaving in the ambulance, her teacher had come to the ER and after questioning Halle 's classmates, we found out that she had licked hand sanitizer off her hand. Hand sanitizer, of all things. But it makes sense. These days they have all kinds of differents scents and when you have a curious child, they are going to put all kinds of things in their mouths. When we arrived at Saint Francis, we told the ER doctor there to check her blood alcohol level, which, yes we did get weird looks from it but they did it. The results wre her blood alcohol level was 85% and this was 6 hours after we first took her. Theres no telling what it would have been if we would have tested it at the first ER. Since then, her school and a few surrounding schools have taken this out of the classrooms of all the lower grade classes but whats to stop middle and high schoolers too? After doing research off the internet, we have found out that it only takes 3 squirts of the stuff to be fatal in a toddler. For her blood alcohol level to be so high was to compare someone her size to drinking something 120 proof. So please PLEASE don't disregard this because I don't ever want anyone to go thru what my family and I have gone thru. Today was a little better but not much. Please send this to everyone you know that has children or are having children. It doesn't matter what age. I just want people to know the dangers of this.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@aretha (2538)
• United States
12 Jun 07
oh my goodness! i have this stuff all over! its in my kitchen,bathroom,truck and in the diaperbag. my sons school uses it also because it is easier for the kids. we have to supplie this stuff in the beginning of the year but i think maybe this year i will get hand soap and take a copy of this to the school. last year in my sons class a little girl got sent to the office because one of the other kids put soap in her drink. what if they woudl of put this in there instead. my six year old uses it all the time and he sucks his finger. how scary! nothing is safe any more you have to be so careful with everything. thank you very much for sharing this
1 person likes this
@aretha (2538)
• United States
26 Jun 07
i been telling everyone about this. i am still shocked and have put hand soap in my bathroom and kitchen. i still carry it in the diaperbag. thanks for BR
@sunshine4 (8703)
• United States
12 Jun 07
I was shocked when I read this also. It is in all the classrooms at the schools here too. It is very scary stuff.
1 person likes this
@k1tten (2315)
• United States
12 Jun 07
I figured that it was bad. What's also bad is if you use it constantly. You actually wear down your own body's immune system. You're killing all the good germs on your person that kills the bad germs. No one thinks of that though. We have to be 99.9% germ free! When in all actuallity we're doing more harm than good.
1 person likes this
@sunshine4 (8703)
• United States
12 Jun 07
YOu are so right, it is doing more harm than good. I never thought about it like that before.
12 Jun 07
I live in the UK and we don't really have this too often but I can understand why you are worrying so much. That is really really scary. I do know here there is a company called Vicks that have a hand sanitiser to prevent germs and bacteria. I am wondering as well if that is dangerous as it so portable and small and is aimed at being convienant. Probably convienant enough to be dangerous.
@sunshine4 (8703)
• United States
12 Jun 07
I'm sure that it is the same stuff. You are only suppose to need to use a tiny bit of the sanitizer. Scary that it can be so harmful.
1 person likes this