Courtesy of the Canada's Winnipeg Free Press--here's the short, excerpted version:
THE Health Sciences Centre will begin padlocking some of its hand-sanitizer dispensers in an effort to cut down on theft and potential abuse. The move came after the province's largest hospital realized as many as 116 bags of alcohol-based sanitizer were disappearing monthly from its wall dispensers.
Police say people are misusing sanitizer by adding salt to it and then drinking the liquid, which poses serious health risks. "Theft has been a big issue," said Craig Doerksen, HSC divisional director of facility management and maintenance services.
Police said the growth of hand-sanitizer abuse came in the wake of the H1N1 flu virus last April when the dispensers suddenly became ubiquitous. However, Doerksen said, in early 2009 the hospital had already started installing the 150-plus public dispensers before H1N1 hit. But locking up the sanitizer might not solve the theft issue, said Doerksen.
"If we lock the containers up, that might just mean the person kicks the whole thing off the wall and steals the product anyways, and now I have a broken wall to fix in addition to a dispenser."
An HSC spokeswoman said they'll also be introducing signs on some public dispensers that tell people sanitizer is for hand-use only and not for drinking.
Alternatively, HSC should consider a simpler approach: installing non-alcohol hand sanitizer products, that are clearly marked as being "NON-ALCOHOL-HAND SANITIZER".... it took us about two seconds to find just one competing product: ..notice the logo and labeling on the dispenser-duh!
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