Hand sanitizers turn out to be the classic double-edged sword of parenting:
While parents use it to keep themselves and their children safe from germs, it also brings with it the chance younger children will drink it out of confusion.
And older children will drink it on purpose.
So says a study released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found hand sanitizer ingestion prompted an average of 17,000 calls a year to poison control hotlines.
As public health officials struggle to contain a series of viral outbreaks this winter, many people are reaching for bottles of hand sanitizer.
Studies show that alcohol-based sanitizers, particularly those with 60 percent ethanol or more, can reduce microbial counts on contaminated hands and reduce the spread of some strains of the flu. But against norovirus, the severe gastrointestinal illness gripping many parts of the country, they may be useless.
The common disinfectant is typically used on, well, hands. But a recent anecdote from a former Wells Fargo banker in an article in The New York Times, who claimed to drink it as a stress reliever, brought the issue into the national spotlight, the newspaper also reports. And earlier this month, it was parodied on "Saturday Night Live," when Emily Blunt's character needs to have her stomach pumped after downing hand sanitizer.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday ordered that antibacterial soaps that contain certain active ingredients can no longer be marketed. That's because manufacturers did not demonstrate that the ingredients are both safe for long-term daily use and more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of certain infections, the FDA said in its final rule.
Federal health officials want to know whether hand sanitizers used by millions of Americans work as well as manufacturers claim — and whether there are any health risks to their growing use. The Food and Drug Administration is asking for new studies on how the antiseptic gels and rubs fight germs and get absorbed into the body, with a particular focus on children and pregnant women. The proposal unveiled Wednesday is part of an ongoing government effort to review decades-old chemicals that have never had a comprehensive federal review.
A new study suggests that an antimicrobial and antifungal agent found in many consumer products ranging from hand soaps to toys and toothpaste can rapidly disrupt bacterial communities found in the gut. The finding about triclosan, which was first used as a hospital scrub in the 1970s and now is one of the most common antimicrobial agents in the world, were published Wednesday in PLOS ONE by researchers from Oregon State University.
Limiting intake seems to have small but significant effect on body weight, study says Cutting back on sugar intake can help adults lose weight and should be part of the strategy to fight the global obesity epidemic, a new study suggests.
According to an updated Cochrane Review on vitamin C and the common cold, vitamin C seems to be particularly beneficial for people under heavy physical stress.
Health problems linked to obesity, like heart disease and diabetes, could skip a generation, a new study suggests. Edinburgh experts found the offspring of obese mothers may be spared health problems linked to obesity, while their own children then inherit them.
The more weight a person gains, the greater the risk that individual will develop the narrowing of heart arteries and reduced blood flow to the heart that can lead to a heart attack, a new Danish study indicates.
