Despite concerns all over about H1N1 swine flu some North American schools are not permitting children to bring hand sanitizer in from home. School districts in Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Florida have been fielding inquiries from parents and staff about the safety of the alcohol-based sanitizers, and there have even been calls to ban the products outright. Apprehensions are the result of reports that there have been incidents of alcohol poisoning due to people, especially small children, ingesting the sanitizer. To be effective the products has to contain a minimum of 60 percent alcohol, which is comparable to the alcohol content in 120 proof whiskey. Experts say that it would only take three squirts from a bottle to make a preschooler very ill, and if the child managed somehow to consume more, there is enough ethyl alcohol in the bottle to kill. There has also been at least one instance in which a secondary school student was accused of trying to inhale the fumes from the sanitizer, in order to get high. Other worries are that students who have been using sanitizer on their hands could be in danger when plugging in electrical equipment in school laboratories: a spark could be created and the student would be burned, one school nurse claimed. Then there is the question of whether the bottles of sanitizer pose a fire hazard, themselves. Although fire safety personnel have confirmed that any quantity of alcohol does pose a fire hazard, they are not recommending any special safety measures for the smaller pump bottles many of us keep on our desks and in our homes. Larger containers of sanitizer, however, do have to be stored with caution. Schools that stock these containers would be expected to follow existing fire safety protocols. Although the possibility of abuse or accident does exist, I've got to say so far I haven't seen any statistics that indicate the frequency of such occurrences. Well, actually, that's not true: the school nurse was discussing a possibility, as are all those who are afraid of the fire hazards linked to products containing alcohol. As for accidental poisonings, all the discussion has been about toddlers and preschoolers who drank or licked the sanitizer at home. Finally, the abuse by the high school student was accused but appears not to have gone beyond that stage. So, overall, the likelihood of students getting hurt using hand sanitizer at school seems very low. The sanitizers do serve a useful purpose, however, in reducing transmission of communicable diseases in general. While droplet or aerosol transmission from sneezing and coughing are also important sources of infection, many of the illnesses we catch can be better controlled through proper hand washing, and in a school environment washing is not always possible. Many schools complain of not having enough sinks to allow for all students to wash up before snacks and meals, and after playing at recess. And sending students out of the classroom to wash after every sneeze would obviously disrupt learning.
If you are a concerned parent, teacher, or student CLEANpHIRST has the answer for you!
Alcohol-Free Foam Sanitizer is an extremely safe, effective, non-irritating, non-flammable, non-staining alternative to alcohol-based hand sanitizers. There is now no reason that students have to leave and disrupt the class after every sneeze or cough. The safest alternative to keeping students/teachers free from germs and bacteria would be to allow ONLY non-alcoholic hand sanitizer in schools. Products that contain alcohol pose a major threat for children, making it difficult for them to stay healthy. Completely removing hand sanitizer out of our schools shouldn't be an option. The risk of a fire or digestion of an alcohol based substance is reckless and extremely unsafe. A safe and more beneficial solution would be to replace dangerous hand sanitizers that contain lethal amounts of alcohol with CLEANpHIRST products which are Alcohol-Free. Keep Fire Safety First with CLEANpHIRST! Click the link below to check out our new products:
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