[New York Post] Health officials are warning against drinking hand sanitizer — after four poisoning deaths were reported in the American southwest.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday issued an advisory against ingesting any type of sanitizer — and echoed FDA guidance to entirely avoid products that contain methanol, a wood alcohol substance that can be toxic when ingested or absorbed through the skin.
Over the course of May and June, the CDC reported 15 cases of methanol poisoning in Arizona and New Mexico when people swallowed alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
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Four of those patients died, while three were discharged with visual impairments, according to the CDC.
"Alcohol-based hand sanitizer products should never be ingested," the CDC wrote in the advisory. "In patients with compatible signs and symptoms or after having swallowed hand sanitizer, prompt evaluation for methanol poisoning is required."
The FDA has listed more than 100 dangerous hand sanitizers that contain methanol.