In keeping with my theme of late, "dirt and germs are good," check out this story about a child who was taken to the emergency room for lethargy and strange behavior. Apparently the four-year-old was licking the hand sanitizer off her little mitts, and she got drunk. Hand sanitizer has a higher alcohol content than booze, and Purell has 62 percent ethyl alcohol. Wowsa.
So we could echo the moral here and say to use the sanitizer sparingly, wash with soap and water, and keep an eye on the children's hand-to-mouth action. Plus I'll add that with all these chemicals and cleansers and special wipes we use for a germ-free, extra-sparkly, and safe life, we may find some unintended consequences start cropping up from time to time. But I just keep thinking, duuuuude, getting intoxicated on hand sanitizer is the most hardcore thing ever. I distinctly remember inhaling deeply from the Sharpies and rubber cement in elementary school (yeah yeah, it explains so much) but this makes our huffing look like sipping a Shirley Temple. I imagine that when word gets out about the Purell buzz, we'll see some kids with very clean hands and a campaign by parents to stop sanitizer abuse.
