Doctors warn of hand sanitizer’s risks to children

News Network
August 7, 2021

Several experts and doctors from across the world have warned against the careless use of hand sanitizers by the children and urged the parents to be cautious.

A recent international study found that hand sanitisers harm and hurt children's eyes.
 
Last month, a four-year-old child in the UAE severely injured her eye after hand sanitizer from a foot-operated station was accidentally squirted directly into it. According to her parents, the accident occurred when the child playfully touched the hand sanitizer station at a public place while she stood directly under it.

The child was rushed to Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, where doctors immediately washed the child's eye, administered antibiotics to prevent infection, and applied eye drops to reduce discomfort. She was diagnosed with a near-total corneal abrasion caused by the alcohol and alkaline chemical additives in the sanitiser.

Dr Razia Mele Vallopra, a specialist paediatrician at Prime Medical Centre Al Nahda, says it is now a common sight to see parents sanitising their children's hands multiple times during the 15 minutes inside her consultation room.

"Sanitisers is also being used on the hands of younger children lavishly. Dispensers are placed in prominent locations in public places like malls leading to unsupervised use by children," she said.

According to Dr Vallopra, many studies have proven that sanitisers with an alcohol content of less than 60 per cent are ineffective. The US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorically states that washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds is superior to using a hand sanitiser, he said.

"But the sanitisers are here to stay, mainly due to their portability and ease of application. As the percentage of alcohol increases, so does the side effects," said the health expert adding she was facing issues in his paediatric practise that were rare before the outbreak of Covid-19.

"Due to the drying effect of alcohol, several children developed dried and cracked skin which made them prone to picking up infections as the protective barrier of intact skin was lost," said Vallopra.

"Many children with previously diagnosed and controlled eczema developed flare-ups of their rashes. Unsupervised use of dispensers on pedestals have caused misdirected spray into the eyes leading to chemical burns."

She advised parents not to allow children to use hand sanitisers without supervision and to use the product in moderation.

"Take a small amount and spread all over the hands and wait for it to dry completely. Avoid ingestion and contact with eyes. Choose hand washing over sanitiser if the situation permits," she said.

Dr Prabhakar Patil, specialist paediatrics & neonatologist from Medcare Women & Children Hospital, says small children are especially susceptible to accidental ingestion of sanitisers as they come in many colourful shapes and sizes.

"As they are more curious, they tend to ingest them. Ingestion can lead to alcohol poisoning with symptoms like excessive sleepiness, low blood sugar, sometimes can lead to convulsions and coma. If sanitisers contain menthol, which is more toxic, it can lead to headache and sometimes blindness and damage to the central nervous system," he said.

"When the sanitiser accidentally touches eyes, it can lead to irritation, redness, blurring of vision, and sometimes chemical burns," he cautioned adding that families should always keep the sanitisers out of reach from children.

Dr Sandeep Kuchi, a paediatrics and neonatology specialist at Aster Hospital, says "rare health effects include coma, seizures, low sugars and respiratory depression."

"Although the use of hand sanitisers must continue, while it is one of the ways to contain the spread of the virus, as a parent, you must try and lessen its harmful impact on our children's health."

Dr Kuchi has advised parents to use soap and water over hand sanitisers with their children wherever possible.

He noted that recent research shows the number of cases due to chemical exposure incidents after excessive usage of sanitiser and adverse health effects has gone up by 8-10 per cent.

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Agencies
March 26,2025

The airstrikes led by the United States have killed at least 25 civilians in Yemen over the past week, marking the deadliest week of bombing on the country since the final months of the Washington-backed Saudi war in January 2022.

In a report released on Tuesday, the Yemen Data Project said the 25 civilians were the victims of 38 US-led aerial assaults on March 15-21, adding that 28 people were also injured in the attacks.

The independent tracker also said that 21 out of the 38 US air raids hit non-military, civilian targets.

“Civilian targets hit included: a medical storage facility, a medical center, a school, a wedding hall, residential areas, a cotton gin facility, a health office, Bedouin tents, and Al-Eiman University,” it said.

The deadliest US strike in the first week of US bombing campaign struck a residential area in Yemen’s northwestern Sa'ada province, killing 10 civilians and wounding 11 others, among them children.

The US began bombing Yemen on March 15, a few days after Yemen resumed its operation against Israeli-linked ships in response to Israel’s Gaza aid blockade that violated a ceasefire with the Hamas resistance group.

The Yemeni Armed Forces began their anti-Israel naval campaign in November 2023, a month after the occupying regime waged a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The Yemeni forces halted their attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians in January, when Israel accepted a three-phase Gaza ceasefire.

Two months later, however, Israel unilaterally broke the Gaza truce and resumed its brutal onslaught on the besieged territory.

On Tuesday, Yemeni media reported 17 US strikes on Sa'ada and two more on the nearby 'Amran province.

The reports said American warplanes carried out "aggressive air raids... causing material damage to citizens' property," but gave no details of casualties.

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News Network
April 7,2025

rafahcity.jpg

Rafah, a city along the border of the Gaza Strip and Egypt, has entirely been “wiped off the map” by Israel’s brutal campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing, says the Gaza government media office.

The media office said Sunday in a statement on X that the southern city of Gaza has entirely been demolished to make way for Israel to turn it into a “closed military operations zone."

The statement said Israel’s military forces have been carrying out “horrific massacres against defenseless civilians” in Rafah, creating a “full-fledged humanitarian disaster.”

According to the officials, Israeli forces have destroyed over 90% of homes—more than 20,000 buildings in Rafah.

All of the historical buildings, archaeological sites, museums, modern homes, the civilian infrastructure, the shops, cafes, restaurants, hospitals, schools, and universities have been demolished.

The officials said the regime's forces have also demolished 22 of 24 water wells, including a large water treatment plant and facility that was built 25 years ago by the Canadian government.

“Tens of thousands of families” are now without safe drinking water, and over 85% of the sewage system has been destroyed, raising fears of disease outbreaks, said the statement.

At least 12 medical centers are out of service, including Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, which was reportedly blown up by an explosive robot.

Rafah is “uninhabitable,” now, the media office said.

The Israeli military’s goal, it said, is to “empty the land of its people and alter its geographic and demographic features.”

Rafah, a city that was built over 3,300 years ago, had a population of 171,889. As recently as February, 1.4 million Palestinians took shelter there as a result of Israel’s forced displacement of the population in northern parts of the besieged enclave.

The city, which was once designated as a "safe zone" by Israel's military, has now been reduced to rubble. The regime's military has now seized the ruins of Rafah and ordered every survivor out, to expand its "security buffer zone" along Gaza's borders.

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News Network
March 28,2025

chaos.jpg

When the ground violently shook beneath his feet, Prem Kishore Mohanty, an Indian expatriate in Bangkok, was attending his five-year-old daughter's school sports day. What began as a routine event—children competing, parents cheering—quickly turned into a moment of panic as tremors struck.

"I felt my head spinning and had to sit down. The overhead lights swayed, and chairs moved," said Mr. Mohanty, 44. The school's PA system quickly announced an emergency evacuation, directing everyone to the outdoor field while warning against using nearby lanes lined with high-rise towers.

Water from rooftop swimming pools, including those at the InterContinental Bangkok, cascaded down buildings, as captured in viral videos.

Fear and Chaos as Bangkok Shakes
The 7.7-magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter in Myanmar, sent powerful tremors into Thailand, bringing Bangkok to an abrupt standstill. Public transport was suspended, traffic snarled, and people evacuated buildings, waiting anxiously for the all-clear.

Earthquakes are rare in Bangkok, a city more accustomed to heat and monsoons than seismic shocks. For the Mohanty family, who live in a high-rise apartment in Sukhumvit, confusion and fear gripped them as the evacuation began.

"It was terrifying. We were told to take the fire escape stairwell and wait outside. There was no time to think," Mr. Mohanty recalled.

Now safe, he remains shaken by the unexpected jolt that turned a normal day into a moment of chaos for his family and thousands across the city.

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