Butler police say a 56-year-old man chugged a bottle of hand sanitizer to get drunk,

When officers got the call last month they found Thomas E. Sherry passed out on South Monroe Street. Next to him was an empty gallon-size jug of liquid hand sanitizer,

He ended up in need of hospital treatment for possible alcohol poisoning.

Sherry of Somerset, Pa., faces a summary charge of public drunkenness in the case. A preliminary hearing is pending.

While it’s not unusual for individuals seeking a buzz to turn to cheap and available consumer products like mouthwash, cough syrup, glue and air duster, the use of hand sanitizer is rare, authorities said.

The attraction to the liquid cleanser, according to Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Butler native and board-certified infectious disease and emergency medicine physician, is the high alcohol content.

Hand sanitizer, he noted, contains 60 percent or more ethyl alcohol, the type found in beer, wine and liquor.

By comparison, beer contains 5 to 10 percent alcohol, wine 10 to 15 percent and liquor up to 40 or 50 percent.

But sanitizer also contains isopropyl alcohol, better known as rubbing alcohol, which is toxic.

Ingestion can result in “severe intoxication,” Adalja said.

It can also “cause alcohol poisoning,” he said, “in the same manner as someone who consumes a large quantity of alcohol-containing beverages but with a smaller quantity, given the potency.”

Alcohol poisoning, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, can cause confusion, vomiting and drowsiness, and in severe cases, respiratory arrest and death.

Police said when they found Sherry about 7 p.m. July 28 under the bridge on South Monroe Street he was “breathing but unresponsive.”

A medical crew tended to him before he was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital.

“It was apparent that he had consumed the hand sanitizer for alcohol content,” the police report said.

For Sherry, who could not be reached for comment, this was not the first time he was cited for public intoxication.

In March, he pleaded guilty to the same charge before a Clearfield County district judge. That charge was filed after DuBois police found him passed out Oct. 9.

But an officer Monday said Sherry in that case used conventional alcoholic beverages to get drunk.

He was ordered to pay $363.50 in fines and court costs stemming from his plea.