If the information can make you smile as it is obvious, English forensic pathologists are very serious. In one year, cases of poisoning due to the ingestion of hydroalcoholic gel have jumped by 61% in the United Kingdom.
-1606907627.jpg "Drinking hydroalcoholic gel can be deadly!")
- The hydroalcoholic gel must not be ingested under penalty of intoxication or even death.
- The products that compose it, such as isopropanol, are strippers and destroy the digestive tract. Ethanol can lead to a coma because of the purity of its alcohol, which is poorly tolerated by the human body.
- In the UK, cases of hydroalcoholic gel poisoning have jumped 61% in one year.
Sometimes there are things that need to be remembered. For example, the fact that the hydroalcoholic gel is applied to the hands to wash them, and that it must not be ingested. This powerful disinfectant, used massively by the population with the Covid-19 pandemic, has claimed many victims across the Channel. Forensic pathologists from the University of Orford (United Kingdom) explain – if it is obvious – that the ingestion of hydroalcoholic gel leads to intoxication which can lead to death. The results of their study were published on 1er December 2020 in the magazine BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.
A 61% increase in poisonings between 2019 and 2020
Hydroalcoholic gel is an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, available as a liquid, gel or foam. Depending on its composition, it can be between 60% and 95% ethyl alcohol (ethanol) or 70% to 95% isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol).
Instinctively, the people most likely to accidentally ingest these products are children, who cannot read the labels. Yet, according to doctors, people with dementia or mental health conditions are also at-risk populations.
In the UK, the problem is taken very seriously. Cases of poisoning linked to the ingestion of alcohol-based hand sanitizer reported to the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS), the equivalent of our poison control centers, jumped 61% between 2019 and 2020, from of 155 (of 1er January to September 16) to 398 (from 1er January to September 14).
Deadly consequences for the body
Ingesting hydroalcoholic gel intoxicates our body, which is not designed to assimilate such pure alcohol. With ethanol alone, it is possible to go as far as massive alcoholism responsible for heartburn, coma, and even death. As for isopropanol, it is known for its disinfecting, stripping and dissolving properties, it is notably commonly used as an additive in gasoline to clean engines. Its irritating properties attack the entire digestive tract and its ingestion can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and coma.
In their study, the forensic scientists describe two cases of fatal ingestion of hydroalcoholic gel during the pandemic. The first relates the death of a young woman on antidepressants, interned in psychiatry who drank a cup of hydroalcoholic gel. She had a high blood alcohol level from the ethanol in the product, and the antidepressant she was taking, venlafaxine, blocked her breathing as the drug molecules came into contact with the gel.
In the second case, a 76-year-old man unwittingly swallowed disinfectant foam that was attached to the foot of his hospital bed. The man suffered from dementia and depression and was also on antidepressants. Admitted to intensive care, he developed complications and died six days later.
“The combination of increased demand for and exposure to alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and the negative consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak on mental health, welfare, financial security and health services are a source of serious concern. While governments and public health authorities have succeeded in making us aware of the need for better hand hygiene during the Covid-19 outbreak, they must also raise awareness of potential harms and encourage reporting of these harms to poison control information centers”, conclude the medical examiners in their study.
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