Alcoholic or just OCD?

Most of us here in Florida have become pretty germ conscious during the past ten years. We ward off contagion in every way possible, by wiping down surfaces with disinfectant and coughing into our sleeves instead of on our hands. We wipe off our computer keyboards and phones when someone else uses them, and we are extra careful after using a public restroom. Soap and water is the place to start.

But sometimes it’s not convenient to be near soap and water all of the time and so several companies have marketed antibacterial hand sanitizers. Small bottles can be carried in one’s purse or pocket or backpack and many schools have begun installing dispensers in various locations around the school, including computer classrooms. Students are asked to cleanse their hands before using a keyboard that others will later be using, and that others just used, for that matter.

Now comes the problem. According to a story from May 2011 from the University of Florida, the frequent use of some hand-sanitizers can lead to a positive test for high alcohol levels.

Now, grant it, in the test that they did, they did ask participants to use the hand sanitizers 120 times per day for three days before they were tested. They then tested the urine and found it contained “measureable levels of a biomarker” used to detect alcohol use in urine tests. 120 is probably quite a bit higher than most people would apply the substance to their hands, but in the case of some health care workers, they might come fairly close.

This doesn’t mean that people can get a buzz from using hand-sanitizers. It does mean that having used them frequently could possibly give a false positive result to a test for alcohol and cause problems, just as eating a poppy seed muffin can mislead a lab on a drug test.

Dr. Gary Reisfield, a University of Florida psychiatrist, did add that, “Anybody out there who is required to abstain from alcohol needs to be cognizant about alcohol that may be hidden in products such has hand washing gels, mouthwashes, hairsprays and other food and cosmetic products. You need to not only be careful of what you put in your body, but what you put on your body.”

It’s worth knowing.