Surge in calls to poison centre over children drinking hand gel

THE National Poisons Information Centre (NPIC) is concerned at the surge in calls involving small children drinking alcohol hand gels or getting the substance in their eyes.

So far this year, the centre has received 49 enquiries about alcohol hand gels, of which 33 were paediatric cases.

One enquiry was about a toddler who drank hand gel that had fallen out of an older sibling’s bag.