08/05/20
CDC: Drinking methanol hand sanitizers poisoned 15, killed 4
Abby Haglage
Two months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that some Americans were drinking bleach to stave off the coronavirus (a practice that’s both extremely dangerous and ineffective), a new report has found evidence of an equally dangerous trend: drinking hand-sanitizer.
Published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Wednesday, the paper shares information about 15 individuals who experienced methanol poisoning “associated with swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitizers” between May 1 and June 30. Four of the individuals — all of whom were located in Arizona or New Mexico — died and three were released with “visual impairment.” At least four of the patients were still in the hospital by early July.
The CDC, which has recommended the use of hand-sanitizer as a substitute (or in addition to hand-washing), retrieved the data in collaboration with both New Mexico and Arizona’s departments of health. The reports came from 62 poison center calls involving hand sanitizer consumption during that time period. According to the patient records, the individuals’ ages ranged in age from 21 to 65, and 86 percent were male. A detailed list of reactions associated with drinking the sanitizer showed varying symptoms, from gastrointestinal distress and vision problems to seizures and loss of consciousness.
In particular, the study urges Americans to specifically avoid methanol-based hand-sanitizers, many of which have been recalled (or are in the process of being recalled). The products, the study reads, can result in both death or “permanent disability” (i.e. blindness). The FDA, which noted in June that the methanol is “not an acceptable active ingredient for hand sanitizers,” has a page dedicated to listing hand sanitizers that Americans should not use, including 67 which were methanol-based and mostly stem from Mexico.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/cdc-...172919134.html