Heard this on TV: hand santizer

[DammitJanet]

Hand sanitizer is now becoming one of the newest and easiest ways for teens to get high. It is cheap and really easy to get. It is practically pure alcohol. The kids are simply pouring it or pumping it into a drink or mixing it with some sort of sweet sugar type stuff...assume koolaid crystals...then they get drunk or end up in the ER or even die.

Some have even mixed it with other stuff to make stuff that makes people hallucinate.

One suggestion was getting the foam sanitizer or the cream or even just soap and water. I do know they have some that are on towelettes.

What in the heck? I remember reading or hearing about kids drinking mouthwash when I was a teen and I thought they were simply stupid. Obviously this generation has lost a few brain cells already.

 

[Hound dog]

I'm beginning to wonder if new generations are being born with less and less brain cells to begin with. And I'm totally serious here.

I saw it too. I was like SERIOUSLY??

The type of alcohol in such things will KILL YOU, it doesn't take that much of it either. It's nothing like the alcohol you actually drink. omg

I had the same reaction when huffing went public. Now I dunno about anyone else, but even my neglectful Mom managed to convince 5 kids that cleaning supplies used for any other purpose could be deadly. Which is why I'm also amazed beyond belief that someone would even try meth, let alone use it on a reg basis.

Then they have some new show I catch once in a while on like Learning channel or some such about addictions.........and you've got people DRINKING gasoline, eating dryer sheets and toilet paper.........some lady had been huffing the gas for like 20 yrs.........I am like omg have our genetics gone nuts in this country or what?? Oh.........I forgot the lady who snorted baby powder all day long........wow. Knew it suffocates babies, but snuffs it anyway. Brilliant.

 

[DammitJanet]

Oh I know! baby powder up her very enlarged nose...lol. I cannot imagine what it has done to her body. Now I will admit that I like the smell of gas but I am not going to sit there and huff it. We did use to huff nitrous oxide when we were teens but it was the pure stuff we store off of the backs of trucks delivering it to dentist offices. College aged kids could be right stupid too. LOL.

Lisa, actually the alcohol used in these hand sanitizers is the same alcohol as what is used in liquor. Ethanol. I think the sale of hand sanitizers should be banned to teens. If parents want them to have them, the parents can buy them for them.

 

[susiestar]

Why would the kids need parents to buy them? there are giant bottles of the stuff in every single classroom in the country. It is easier and faster than telling kids to wash their hands. I knew this was coming.

One thing they are doing is getting directions online and using salt to separate out the alcohol. This is esp bad because their breath does NOT smelllike they have been drinking. Plus sanitizer is much higher in alcohol content than whiskey or other hard liquors. So kids get overly intoxicated to the point of alcohol poisoning very very fast.

 

[DammitJanet]

And the girls are soaking tampons in it to avoid having their breath smell

 

[tiredmommy]

Gross.

Duckie is going to flip her lid if she can't carry sanitizer because it becomes an age-restricted item. She's a germaphobe especially at school. Ugh! Guess we'll be getting her cream sanitizer.

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

And the girls are soaking tampons in it to avoid having their breath smell

I agree with Lisa - What happened to all those brain cells?

 

[hearts and roses]

That is sick. We should all avoid sanitizers like the plague it will eventually cause. Overuse actually makes our bodies MORE susceptible to germs and disease. It's crazy, I avoid it and just use soap and water, best and easiest and cheapest stuff around. easy child likes the small bottles of sanitizer to carry in her purse-she is a germaphobe as well.

 

[buddy]

These stories have been out since I was teaching four years ago....we had to start hiding sanitizer in school because there were already stories that kids had died.

(Beyond that teachers were using it instead of having kids wash their hands before eating and it doesn't get rid of everything, doesn't actually clean hands off.)

Stories here have said kids are taking it out of those dispensers that are in halls at hospitals and universities etc. Really sick. It's true, they will try anything, it is so scary.

 

[keista]

Well, if they pull the stuff from the shelves, won't bother me one tiny iota. I really think the stuff is stupid. Fast yes, but NOTHING replaces washing hands. Yeah, OK, I've sterilized my hands, but guess what? They are still DIRTY! You know? that "old fashioned" stuff? DIRT? Yeah, that still exists.

in my opinion the stuff is a waste of money and I RELUCTANTLY buy it every year as a classroom supply.

 

[Hound dog]

I've yet to have my first cuppa coffee this morning. They actually put ethanol in it? Now I'm going to have to dig out a bottle and see for myself! I store it for emergencies, picked up free with coupons, I never buy/use the stuff. Soap and hot water does the same thing, and actually better.....which hospitals have discovered. Now they push both. Which kills me as the hospital here (already had tiny patient rooms) removed all sinks in the rooms once this stuff came out thinking they wouldn't be needed anymore. (how stupid was that?? ) But with ethanol in it (and as relatively inexpensive as it is) I'm surprised every alcoholic hasn't kept store shelves wiped out of the stuff.

I know a majority of these idiots are kids, even older college "kids" (not really kids but obviously not grown up either) but I'll tell ya sometimes when I hear stuff like this I think gee.......maybe natural selection isn't such a horrid thing. Fortunately I don't have the thought very often. I know it sounds cold and callous, but geez. I really do have a hard time believing that these people are "innocent" to the fact this stuff can/will kill them and yet they plod ahead and happily do it anyway. I know young people suffer from invincibility ......but even this is extreme.

Janet, I also love love love the smell of gas. It's an odd sweet odor. But I've never been stupid enough to stand around sniffing/huffing the stuff. It does, however, make me very talented at picking up on a possible gas leak ect in a car because I smell it first and recognize it immediately.

 

[keista]

but I'll tell ya sometimes when I hear stuff like this I think gee.......maybe natural selection isn't such a horrid thing.

I have this thought daily. And I do mourn right alongside the mom of the child that drank a bottle of soap and died, but at the same time am oh so happy that those *brilliant* genes won't get passed on.

Sorry, I believe we spend way too much time trying to save lives that really shouldn't be saved.

 

[Lothlorien]

No Keista! I'd die. I'm a bit of a germaphobe, too. I realize it doesn't clean, but at least it kills the germs. I hate to admit this, but I have to shake hands with people frequently and when I have a minute, privately, I will use the stuff. I keep it in my car and my pocketbook. I was in a home recently, for my job, where the home was quite filthy. I had to use the bathroom as soon as I got there. The couple looked at each other when I said I had to use the bathroom. I knew I was in for it. DISGUSTING. I went to wash my hands and there was not only no soap, but nothing but toilet paper to dry my hands. So the minute I got in my car, I hand-sanitized.

Then, those of us with well-water instead of city water will also freak. If we lose power, we lose our water. The first time we lost power in this house, I couldn't thank God enough for Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer!

 

[AnnieO]

Water, isopropyl alcohol, glycerin, carbomer, aminomethyl propanol, fragrance, propylene glycol, isopropyl myristate, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, tocopheryl acetate, FD&C yellow no. 5 (tartrazine), FD&C blue no. 1.

This is the ingredient list from the Purell bottle I have on my desk. 8 oz. and I have had it for... About 4 years?... It's almost half full still. It is there for when I am sick or someone else is and must use my keyboard. For the first 2 years (when most of what was used, was used), I had it at the front desk for the use of all the people coming in.

My boss washes her hands with soap and water, dries them and then uses hand sanitizer. Huh? (Interestingly, she gets sick more than I do. And I have kids in the house - hers are grown.)

This stuff has its place. But honestly, as Jo said, all these HEPA filters and hypoallergenic thisses and antibacterial thats are creating problems - superbugs. More kids are allergic to more stuff because they haven't been exposed. I have a mild allergy to cats, as does Jett. I've had cats my whole life - and it's not a problem. When the kids visited us more often, Jett's allergies decreased; when they came to live with us, they all but vanished. He used to WHEEZE (asthma) and was tested for allergies - came up cats and "dust mics". Bio told us to vacuum his room every day and the rest of the house every other day. (Scuse me, but it's MY HOUSE.) Since living with us? No asthma symptoms. NONE. Even his hay fever isn't as bad. Guess what else he is allergic to? Mold. We don't have much, but bio-gma's trailer did (probably still does)... Whenever he goes over there he comes home sneezing and with puffy eyes... I try to get to him with the benadryl beforehand, but...

Anyway I digressed! Has anyone else ever tasted hand sanitizer? I have, and yes, it was by accident. It took 2 teeth-brushings and a couple cups of coffee to get the taste out of my mouth. BLECH!!! I can see drinking mouthwash, at least it tastes decent.

Natural selection... We've made it too easy for people to survive...

 

[AnnieO]

No Keista! I'd die. I'm a bit of a germaphobe, too. I realize it doesn't clean, but at least it kills the germs. I hate to admit this, but I have to shake hands with people frequently and when I have a minute, privately, I will use the stuff. I keep it in my car and my pocketbook. I was in a home recently, for my job, where the home was quite filthy. I had to use the bathroom as soon as I got there. The couple looked at each other when I said I had to use the bathroom. I knew I was in for it. DISGUSTING. I went to wash my hands and there was not only no soap, but nothing but toilet paper to dry my hands. So the minute I got in my car, I hand-sanitized.

Then, those of us with well-water instead of city water will also freak. If we lose power, we lose our water. The first time we lost power in this house, I couldn't thank God enough for Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer!

Yes - this stuff has its place - another good place is outside port-a-potties.

 

[tiredmommy]

I work pt in a pharmacy... you can bet I use sanitizer when someone really sick uses my pen or anyone hands me their cash and I can't break away to wash my hands because of a line.

 

[keista]

I checked the bottle I have here (left over from school supplies - still full after 2 years) Sure enough, ethyl alcohol 62% I think it depends on the brand. Mine is germ-x

 

[AnnieO]

TM, that's the same as my having the bottle on my desk - I stare at it a lot... You know, I think maybe it's actually slowly evaporating.

 

[hearts and roses]

...all these HEPA filters and hypoallergenic thisses and antibacterial thats are creating problems - superbugs. More kids are allergic to more stuff because they haven't been exposed...

Exactly! I use it after visiting my mom at the nursing home - there are a lot of bugs there I don't even want to think about, but you don't want to use the bathrooms that the residents use and the guest bathroom is always occupied, so the hand sanitizer is the next best thing. But when I'm buying that pump soap for the bathroom? I dig around until I find one that does NOT have the sanitizer or antibacterial stuff in it. Your body has bacteria in and on the skin that protect you from certain germs...those cleansers kill that bacteria off, leaving you more susceptible than ever. My co-worker goes through the stuff like crazy and she is always getting sick - catches nearly every bug that floats by and it takes her forever to get over what ever illness she's contracted. And that's how it is for most people.

There is a woman in town who buys out the Vanilla extract at the local store, goes behind the store, guzzles it and leaves all the little empties there. It is sad what some people go through to feed their addiction.

 

[Hound dog]

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks some genes just should not be passed on. Sad but true. Maybe that is what is wrong with the world.