Hand Sanitizers Could Effect Alcohol Tests

Chronic use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers may have an unintended consequence - a false-positive screen for alcohol use.

Researchers at the University of Florida (Gainesville, USA) wanted to assess the degree of ethanol absorption and subsequent formation of urinary ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulfate (EtS) following sustained application of hand sanitizer. To do so, 11 volunteers cleansed their hands with a hand sanitizer that contained 62% ethanol, every 5 minutes for 10 hours on three consecutive days. Urine specimens were obtained at the beginning and end of each day of the study, and on the morning of the fourth day. Urinary creatinine, ethanol, EtG, and EtS concentrations were measured.

The results showed that none of the pre-study specimens had detectable ethanol. The maximum EtG and EtS concentrations over the course of the study were 2,001 and 84 ng/mL, respectively, and nearly all EtG- and EtS-positive urine specimens were collected at the conclusion of the individual study days. Only two specimens had detectable EtG at the beginning of any study day (96 and 139 ng/mL), and only one specimen had detectable EtS at the beginning of a study day (64 ng/mL), in addition to the two with detectable EtS prior to the study. Creatinine-adjusted maximum EtG and EtS concentrations were 1,998 and 94 μg/g creatinine, respectively.

According to the researchers, when comparing the levels of EtG and EtS in the urine of people who used a lot of sanitizer (such as doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers), the level of EtS in was much lower in the sanitizer group, not coming close to the cutoffs used to indicate alcohol use. Thus, checking for EtS could help laboratories more accurately distinguish alcohol use from those using hand sanitizers alone. The study was published in the March 2011 issue of the Journal of Analytical Toxicology.

"Many of the hand sanitizers contain ethyl alcohol, which is the same type of alcohol in alcoholic beverages. The body does not distinguish between drinking alcohol and handwash alcohol,” said lead author Gary Reisfield, MD, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry. "Anyone out there who is required to abstain from alcohol needs to be very cognizant about alcohol that may be hidden in products such as handwashing gels, mouthwashes, hairsprays, and cosmetics. You need to be careful not just what you put in your body but what you put on your body.”

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