Prison guards and inmates are encouraged to use hand sanitizer liberally to prevent the spread of infection.
“It?s actually quite effective at killing bacteria and more effective at killing viruses than other types of hand cleaners,” said Christopher Welsh, a University of Maryland addictions psychiatrist. On the other hand, sanitizers contain the same alcohol compound as restricted drinks such as beer and vodka.
However, this October, a Maryland inmate took those instructions out of context and began drinking from a gallon jug of sanitizer, health officials say. The sanitizer included more than 70 percent ethyl alcohol by volume.
“He appeared intoxicated ? slurred speech, making grandiose statements about the meaning of life,” Suzanne Doyon, medical director of the Maryland Poison Control Center in Baltimore said Wednesday.
The 49-year-old inmate, who was not identified, was treated for alcohol poisoning. His blood alcohol level topped .33 percent, Doyon and Welsh wrote in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine today.
“We?re primarily concerned about at-risk patients,” Doyon said. “Patients who intentionally do this to get drunk, especially those hospitalized, institutionalized or in rehabilitation or nursing care facilities.”
There is also a concern about middle and high school students drinking hand sanitizer to “be cool,” Welsh said. “It?s important for parents and school personnel to be aware that it is happening.”
He suggested parents treat hand sanitizer like any other potentially harmful household product, including storing out of reach of small children and instructing children not to drink from it.
The Poison Center gets a handful of calls each year about young people intoxicated by hand sanitizers, mouthwash and flavoring extracts, Doyon said. “You can drink enough to get alcohol poisoning and die.”
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are recommended for institutional use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They are widely used by individual consumers across the country under names including Avagard D, Avant, Nexcare, Prevacare, Germ-X and Purell.
A spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections could not immediately comment on the October case or any preventive measures taken since.
