Your health: Is hand sanitizer toxic for children?

Dangers of children and hand sanitizer

Six-year-old Nhaijah Russell swallowed three or four squirts of seemingly innocuous liquid hand sanitizer at school. It tasted good, she said, like strawberry, CNN reports.

It also contained enough alcohol to make her dangerously drunk. She arrived at the emergency room slurring her words and unable to walk.

Is hand sanitizer toxic?

Since 2010, poison control center hotlines across the United States have seen a nearly 400 percent increase in calls related to children younger than 12 ingesting hand sanitizer, according to new analysis by the Georgia Poison Center.

"Kids are getting into these products more frequently and unfortunately, there's a percentage of them going to the emergency room," said Dr. Gaylord Lopez, the center's director.

The amount of alcohol in hand sanitizer ranges from 45 percent to 95 percent. Ingesting even small amounts - as little as two or three squirts in some cases - can cause alcohol poisoning. By comparison, wine and beer contain about 12 percent and 5 percent alcohol, Lopez said. Nhaijah's blood-alcohol level was .179, twice what's considered legally drunk in an adult.

Lopez said 3,266 hand sanitizer cases related to young children were reported to poison control centers in 2010. In 2014, the number increased to 16,117 cases.

Fall prevention screenings offered

In honor of Falls Prevention Awareness Day Sept. 23, some local businesses are seeking to raise awareness about how to prevent fall-related injuries among older adults.

Falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries for older Americans and one-third of Americans older than 65 falls each year, according to the National Council on Aging and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• Stay Fit Physical Therapy and Core Wellness, Inc. is offering free balance and fall risk screenings at both the Mount Prospect and Park Ridge locations Sept. 21-25. For more information or to schedule, call (847) 782-9348.

• FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers-Naperville, 1240 Iroquois Ave, Suite 400, is offering free fall risk assessments on Sept. 23. Visit Fight TheFall.com to schedule a free assessment.