Children are consuming hand sanitizer. Here’s how to keep them safe.

Poison control centers are receiving more calls about young children accidentally ingesting hand sanitizer, which can be ethanol- or isopropyl alcohol-based. Last year, there were more than 20,000 exposures to hand sanitizer among children younger than age 6 years, an increase of 40% from 2019, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Most of these exposures involved children aged 2 years and younger. In some cases, children experienced vomiting, cough, and mouth irritation, says Justin Arnold, medical director of Florida Poison Information Center Tampa. In July and August, U.S. poison control centers saw an increase in calls after FDA warned of hand sanitizers that may contain methanol, which can be poisonous if ingested. Exposure to household cleaners such as liquid laundry detergent packets, bleach, all-purpose cleaners, drain cleaners, and oven cleaners also increased, rising by 10% among children younger than age 6 years during the first few months of the pandemic, according to an August report by the American Association of Poison Control Centers. William Eggleston, a clinical toxicologist at the Upstate New York Poison Center in Syracuse, NY, and an assistant professor at the Binghamton University School of Pharmacy, says: “People don’t recognize how toxic it is if ingested, what the effects are, and what they need to do for safe storage.”