Swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitizer can kill, warns analysis of coroners' reports

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/b-sah113020.php

 

News Release 1-Dec-2020
BMJ

 

Swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitiser can kill, warns an analysis of two such deaths identified in coroners' reports, and published in the journal BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.

But the public is largely unaware of the potential safety hazards of this form of hand hygiene, which has become commonplace in homes, hospitals, schools, workplaces and public venues in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, argues the researcher.

More needs to be done to protect those at risk of unintentional and intentional swallowing of this chemical, such as children, people with dementia/confusion, and those with mental health issues, urges the researcher, in the first of a series of Coroners' Concerns to Prevent Harms articles published in the journal.

Alcohol-based hand sanitisers are available in liquid, gel or foam formulations. They contain 60-95% ethyl alcohol (ethanol) or 70-95% isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol).

In the UK alone, alcohol-based hand sanitiser poisonings reported to the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) rose by 61% between 2019 and 2020, from 155 (January 1 to September 16) to 398 (January 1 to September 14).

Two such cases of unintentional poisonings in children at home have already been reported in Australia and the USA during the pandemic, says the researcher, who describes two other deaths that occurred in hospitals in England before the pandemic.

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