At least they’ll be clean.
Swedish teens have been chugging hand sanitizer to get drunk — and they’re doing it so much that police have begun asking store owners to hide the hand gel.
Police spokesman Stefan Sund said the problem first cropped up on New Year’s Eve.
“Young people were coming into the emergency room with alcohol poisoning and said that they had drunk alcogels,” he told a radio station, according to The Local, an English-language Swedish news site.
As a result, police have asked pharmacies to start hiding the gel behind the counter — and stores in at least three cities have complied.
It’s not just Swedish teens that are getting wild and crazy with the hand gel.
In 2012, California authorities reported that young people had begun landing in the ER after chugging the hand cleaner.
“Teens don’t have access to ethyl alcohol so they resort to crazy things,” pediatric toxicologist Dr. Young-jin Sue told the Daily News at the time.
“It’s very concentrated, just a few ounces can make someone sick.”
Hand sanitizer contain between 45% and 95% ethyl alcohol, according to CNN.
