Drunk and on fire: The downside of fighting H1N1 with hand sanitizer in school

[Leo 9]

Drunk and on fire: The downside of fighting H1N1 with hand sanitizer in school

By Emily Kaiser in How We Live, Swine fluMonday, Sep. 21 2009 @ 12:56PM



In a St. Paul elementary school classroom Friday, students lined up for lunch in silence with their hands cupped. One by one, the students got a squirt of hand sanitizer as their teacher walked down the row of excited students. It's all part of the nation's attempt to stop an H1N1 flu outbreak in schools, where the virus has been known to spread quickly around germ-infested kids who can't break nasty habits that make schools a breeding ground for illness. One kid sneezes without covering their mouth and teachers are on their case.

But a school's attempt to keep kids flu-free this season has to have a downside. Because what's the fun in making an H1N1 outbreak not happen at all? So what's making people so concerned? Apparently these hand sanitizers could make a student or the classroom ignite in flames. Or they could just choose to chug the bottle of delicious gel and get drunk instead.

Yep. Totally plausible. Once kids realize hand sanitizer has the alcohol content of whiskey it will be the new beverage of choice. Conclusion: H1N1 wins again!

More from Chicago Tribune:
A wrinkle has emerged in the world of the squirt happy: Hand sanitizers have a fairly high alcohol content. That has some officials worried about flammability and potential misuse as an intoxicant.

To be effective, health officials deem it necessary to have at least 60 percent alcohol, roughly the equivalent of whiskey, in hand sanitizer. Some schools in Florida and Canada have banned hand sanitizers because of the high concentration of alcohol.

snip

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/09/drunk_and_on_fi.php

[NV Whino]

1. Let the litle fucktards get drunk

at least ther will be sanitized. :rofl:

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

2. Fuckin A

What else are these little fuckers going to discover to get high with?

[surrealAmerican]

3. Too bad the schools don't have running water.

Then they could use soap.

[BarenakedLady]

4. The school I work for

Suggests alcohol-free based sanitizers. They are out there.

[hippywife]

5. I have the answer!

If the teacher just gave all the little germ bags a shotgun as he/she squirts their hands with sanitizer, they'd already have a buzz and not need to ingest the sanitizer.

So beautiful in it's simplicity, no?

:rofl:

[greenbriar]

6. our school put dispensers next to the food line...The boys found out if you slap some

on someone elses neck it makes them break out into really cool red bumps

[KG]

7. hand sanitizer as gateway drug!

had i only known.... :P

[Posteritatis]

8. Best. Headline. Ever. (nt)

[madeline_con]

9. There just are no words.

:yoiks:

[old mark]

10. "Drunk and on fire".....Now THERE's

a bad combination.....:rofl:

"Hey, watch this!......."

mark