Parents take note! Hand sanitisers dangerous for kids

Take note if your kids are making use of Hand sanitisers,Scientists have warned that these hand sanitisers are alcohol-based, scented products which tempt young kids to swallow the substance resulting to serious consequences such as stomach pains, nausea and even coma.

Kids who are exposured to sanitisers have resulted in adverse health effects like abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting among children, scientists said.

Hand sanitisers can result to serious consequences, including apnea, acidosis and coma in young children who swallowed alcohol-based hand sanitisers, according to Researchers from US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention have identified.

To characterise paediatric alcohol hand sanitiser exposures in the US, data reported by poison centres among children aged 12 years during 2011 to 2014 were analysed.

Hand sanitiser exposures were defined as a poison centre call reporting an exposure to either alcohol hand sanitiser exposure or a non alcohol sanitiser product.

Calls reporting co-exposures to other agents were excluded to minimise confounding effects. The study found that majority of intentional exposures toalcohol hand sanitisers occurred in children aged 6-12 years.

During 2011-2014, a total of 70,669 hand sanitiser exposures in children aged 12 years were reported, of which 65,293 were 92 per cent alcohol exposures and 5,376 were 8 percent non alcohol exposures.

These data also indicate that, among older children,exposures occur less frequently during the summer months. The reason for this seasonal trend is unknown but might be associated with flu season or more ready access to hand sanitisers during the school year, researchers said.

The recommendations provided by the researchers included, hand washing with soap and water. Increasing awareness of the potential dangers associated with intentional or unintentional ingestion of alcohol handsanitisers.

"Caregivers and health care providers need to be aware of the potential risks and dangers associated with improper use of hand sanitiser products among children and the need to use proper safety precautions to protect children," researchers said. 

(With PTI Input)