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Clean Hands Too Tempting For Alcoholics

Med Headlines - Alcoholism is a sad, tragic illness that often leads the sufferer to take desperate measures. Researchers in London recently reported that an alarming number of alcoholics are ingesting alcohol-based hand wipe solutions when other form of alcohol is out of reach.

The study was spurred by the discovery that an alcohol-dependent patient, assumed to be in a period of hospitalized abstinence, was experiencing withdrawal symptoms, even without known alcohol ingestion.

The collapsed patient was found with empty bottles of the infection-control hand rub solution, kept in his room for sanitation purposes. His blood alcohol level registered nine times higher than the legal limit allowed for driving in Britain. This high concentration is potentially fatal.

This discovery led to a search of poison-control reports of the country’s toxicology database, which revealed alcohol poisonings had increased by more than 300% after the introduction of the alcohol hand rubs.

Many of the alcohol overdoses are attributed to accidental ingestion, especially in the cases of children, confused individuals, and the elderly, all of whom might mistake the clear solution for water. Sixty-six percent of the overdoses were found to be intentional, however, and all involved alcoholics.

While lethal doses of ethanol (drinkable alcohol) have been established, no such information is available for isopropanol, the type of alcohol used for infection control.

Researchers suggest making hand-wipe dispensers harder to reach, perhaps keeping them under lock and key, and keeping the smaller containers out of the rooms of known alcoholics while they are in hospitals, nursing homes, and other types of healthcare facilities.

The full report, submitted by Paul I Dargan, MRCP, of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, can be found in the December 1 issue of BMJ.

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