Why So Many Kids Are Accidentally Getting Drunk on Hand Sanitizer

Students are heading off to school carrying backpacks filled with something far more intoxicating than a hidden flask or spiked water bottle: hand sanitizer.

Gel sanitizer has become commonplace in classrooms across the country, and according to new data from the Georgia Poison Center, an increasing number of children are giving it a taste.

What might not seem alarming at first can quickly have intoxicating effects. The main ingredient in alcohol-based hand sanitizer is ethanol, and the amount of alcohol in a bottle ranges from 45 to 95 percent. In comparison, a typical beer is five percent, a glass of wine is 12 percent, and a bottle of tequila is approximately 40 percent alcohol.

According to CNN, consuming just a couple of squirts can cause alcohol poisoning. With enticing scents and flavors — including pumpkin spice — it's no wonder there's been a nearly 400 percent increase in calls to the poison control center hotlines related to children 12 and younger ingesting hand sanitizer.

While some older students are drinking hand sanitizer on a dare or as a cheap way to get drunk, younger children are just curious and think it looks tasty. "A kid is not thinking this is bad for them," Dr. Gaylord Lopez, director of the Georgia Poison Center, told CNN. "A lot of the more attractive [hand sanitizers] are the ones that are scented. There are strawberry, grape, orange-flavored hand sanitizers that are very appealing to kids."

Lopez told CNN that 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.

Here are some easy ways to protect your youngsters from hand sanitizer without exposing them to germs: