Drunk on Hand Sanitizer, Dangerous Games, and Child Signs of Autism

Amaury · Apr 26, 2012

Hey, check it out! More crazy stories!

The best one: It seems that teenagers are getting drunk from the alcohol contents of hand sanitizer. Okay, one question? Why would you consume hand sanitizer in the first place? I swear, people are getting more and more desperate in terms of wanting to feel high.

Source: U.S. News

Publication Date: 4/25/2012

Los Angeles Teens Getting Drunk on Hand Sanitizer

Teens are getting drunk on hand sanitizer. Over the past few months, six teenagers have shown up in Los Angeles area emergency rooms with alcohol poisoning after drinking the cheap, easily accessible product. Hand sanitizers contain 62 percent ethyl alcohol and can make a 120-proof liquid. Some of the teens used salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer, creating a drink similar to a shot of hard liquor. "All it takes is just a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager," Cyrus Rangan, director of the toxicology bureau for the county public health department and a medical toxicology consultant for Children's Hospital Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times. "There is no question that it is dangerous." Health experts recommend that parents purchase the foam version of hand sanitizer, since it's harder to extract the alcohol, potentially dissuading teens from drinking it.

The 'Choking Game' and Other Dangerous Games Your Kids Should Avoid

A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, but a spoonful of cinnamon â€¦ that's an entirely different story.

It sounds like something you'd see on the television show Iron Chef, only the seemingly innocent "cinnamon challenge" poses an alarming number of risks for kids and teens who take it on. (The goal: to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon without washing it down with water.) Over the past few months, emergency rooms and poison control centers throughout the country have been flooded with calls from panicked parents and concerned school nurses about this prevalent trend.

But cinnamon isn't the only ingredient that kids are challenging. Milk, marshmallows, water, and even oxygen (rather, lack thereof) can stimulate kids' competitive edge. More than 6 percent of eighth graders have participated in the extremely dangerous "choking game," which involves cutting off oxygen intake by strangling to produce a light-headed, fuzzy feeling, finds a new study published in Pediatrics by the Oregon Health Authority and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 1995 and 2007, approximately 82 kids ages six to 19 died after playing the choking game, according to the study. [Read more: The 'Choking Game' and Other Dangerous Games Your Kids Should Avoid]

Signs Your Child Could Have Autism

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that one in every 88 children has autismâ€”up from one in 156 in 2002â€”you might be wondering how to recognize the signs and symptoms of the developmental disorder.

While it's not clear what's driving the uptick in prevalence, and the precise causes of autism are still unknown, experts are calling for earlier diagnosis. "We have to get this down to 18 months of age to truly have the greatest impact," says Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC. Doctors have gotten better at identifying autism symptoms in younger childrenâ€”four is the average age of diagnosisâ€”but "four years old is still too late," he says. Frieden stresses that the earlier a child is identified with autism, the more likely it is that behavioral intervention will make the disability more manageable. Parents may be able to spot symptoms of autism before a child's first birthday, says Coleen Boyle, who heads up the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. "Parents know their child best, but if they do have concerns, the important thing is not to wait [to seek help]," she says. Susan Hyman, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics subcommittee on autism, strongly recommends having children screened by a child development specialist at 18, 24, and 30 months.
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The Twin · Apr 27, 2012

Sadly, the hand sanitizer thing isn't all that unheard of. At the daycare I work at I'm not allowed to have one of those clip-on things on sanitizer clipped to my beltloop because they're afraid a toddler will do just that; swallow some.

I also remember when my brother was in kindergarten, during a rather nasty flu season, my mother was called and told to come pick him up from school for the rest of the day because she had put a small bottle of Purell in his lunchbag. And it was for the exact same reason.

Daxa~ · Apr 27, 2012

Oh the hand sanitizers.
When there was that big Swine Flu scare over here (which I got, one of the first in Ireland to have it, kekekeke~) they put hand sanitizers in my school.
Everyone used to get some, then lick their hands. By everyone, I mean everyone from ages 4-12. Oh primary school.
Yesh.
Looking back, I realise just how stupid that was. And how the teachers let us do it. Hmm.

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Drunk on Hand Sanitizer, Dangerous Games, and Child Signs of Autism

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The Twin My, what a strange duet

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