Sanitizing gel poisons two seeking alcohol fix

At least two people have become intoxicated by drinking hand-sanitizing gels, a potentially deadly habit, doctors reported Wednesday.

A prison inmate and a hospitalized alcoholic were treated for poisoning from the gels, which contain alcohol -- but not the kind found in beverages.

Evidently people misunderstand the labels that show the gels, foams and liquids contain alcohol, the doctors said in separate letters to the New England Journal of Medicine. Cases of people drinking hand gels for the alcohol had not been reported before in major medical journals.

Isopropanol, the alcohol in the gels, depresses the heart and central nervous system. It takes only a small amount of it to kill, the doctors wrote. They suggested that makers of the hand gels change the labeling.