The World's Most Useful Substance

As previously discussed, my readership leans toward the slightly neurotic. Everyone has their “issues” but faithful reader Howard Hughes is the king of the neurotics.

I’ve often blogged about Howard and for Howard, providing links to new products and techniques to avoid those “things you cannot see”; germs. Howard is always surrounded by Purell. One on his desk, in the car, on the belt and I’m sure a Costco-sized barrel at home. I always thought this was due to his neurotic fear of germs. And then I read this story:

The 49-year-old Maryland inmate seemed seriously sick after he drank from a gallon container of hand sanitizer. Described as "loony," "red-eyed" and "combative," officials whisked him to a nearby hospital for treatment.

But they quickly discovered he wasn't ill -- just very, very drunk on Purell.

The October incident, detailed this past week in the New England Journal of Medicine as one of the first documented cases of its kind, has raised questions about the potential abuse of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

"The widespread use of hand sanitizer is fraught with a great deal of danger," said Suzanne Doyon, medical director of the Maryland Poison Center, who co-authored a letter in the journal about the case. "From an infection control perspective, they are excellent. But there is this risk involved."

Purell, which is 70 percent alcohol, is far more potent than beer (5 percent), wine (10 percent) or hard liquor (40 percent). Doyon said the non-alcohol ingredients in hand sanitizer don't pose a health risk if ingested.

The Maryland inmate, described as usually calm, seemed intoxicated and began "lecturing everybody about life" after imbibing the Purell, Doyon said. His blood-alcohol content level was found to be 0.33 -- more than four times Maryland's intoxication standard.

Since the October incident, the Maryland Poison Center has received reports from five or six other adults in the state who consumed hand sanitizer because "they were looking for a buzz," Doyon said. Washington Post

This explains so much. Next time Howard starts to “lecture me about life”, I’ll calmly tell him to put down the gallon jug of Purell he carries around on his belt and sleep it off.