While you certainly can’t sue over the subject matter of this post, this new trend is so baffling that it nonetheless merits attention.  According to a recent article in the L.A. Times, a new trend is emerging on college campuses throughout the country: drinking hand sanitizer.

In the past year, the California Poison Control System announced that it has received sixty reported cases of teenagers drinking hand sanitizer.  In order to kill all of those germs on your hands, sanitizer contains 62% ethyl alcohol.  Unfortunately, many teens have begun to utilize the substance to create a very potent alcoholic beverage, which sometimes includes salt to separate out the alcohol.  Some students reported locating instructions for making this stiff cocktail on the Internet.

If you are concerned that your child might be interested in experimenting, there are ways to continue using hand sanitizer, while minimizing the availability of the product around your house.  According to Cyrus Rangan of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, “All it takes is just a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager.”  Health experts have advised purchasing foam hand sanitizers instead of the liquid versions, as the foam is more difficult to transform into a legal beverage.

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