Hand sanitizer sending teens to the hospital for alcohol poisoning

Drinking hand sanitizer is apparently the latest craze among teenagers looking for a cheap -- and dangerous -- buzz. ABC News reports that as many as six California teens were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning in March from drinking the ethyl alcohol-based liquid.

"This is a rapidly emerging trend," Dr. Cyrus Rangan, medical toxicology consultant for Children's Hospital Los Angeles, says during a Tuesday (April 24) press conference.  

There have been about 2,600 cases in California since 2010, but another Children's Hospital employee says it's happening throughout the country.

Liquid hand sanitizer is essentially 120 proof -- compared with vodka at 80 proof.  

"A few swallows is all it takes to get a person to get the intoxicated effects of alcohol,"  Rangan says.

A few extra germs aren't looking so bad now, eh?