A mum is urging parents and schools to warn kids over the dangers of drinking hand sanitiser - after approaching a group on the Metrolink.
The woman was travelling home from her workplace in Manchester to Rochdale at around 4.30pm yesterday (November 9).
She spotted the youngsters, aged around 12 to 13, squirting sanitiser into what looked like a can of non-alcoholic Guinness.
After hearing the lads egging each other on to drink from it - and promising to pay each other for trying some - she decided to step in.
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"I didn't realise what they were doing at first as I had my headphones," said the mum-of-two, who did not want to be identified.
"But then I realised what they were doing. There were lots of adults just standing around watching and not interfering, but I couldn't just stand there and watch.
"I just said to them 'you're not seriously going to drink that are you?' and tried to explain to them, in the best way I could, that there are different types of alcohol - alcohol you can drink when you're old enough and alcohol solution that you can't drink.
"I said 'it will make you very ill and put you in hospital'."
The 29-year-old, says the group, who were still wearing their school uniforms, 'realised it was not a good idea and didn't drink it'.
But she's concerned that other young people could be doing the same.
"I'm not sure if it was one of these challenges they copy from the internet as they did seem to be trying to film it on their phones," she said.
"They were egging each other on saying 'I'll give you £2.50, I'll give you £5'.
"I did read something online about people having died from drinking the stuff, or going blind, so it's happened elsewhere. They're obviously getting the idea from somewhere."
The woman, a construction worker in the city centre, says she's all too aware that 'kids will be kids', but says it's down to adults to make sure they are fully aware of how dangerous it can be.
"I think it makes a difference how you approach the kids," she said. "Rather than talking down to them, approach them at their level and you'll find it's a lot more positive.
"I see quite a lot of teens on the tram and I have stepped in before - for instance if they're giving the ticket people [trouble]. Not all youngsters are appreciative of it but I think it depends on how you approach them."
Hand sanitiser has become more commonly used amid the pandemic and is readily available.
Most alcohol-based hand sanitiser gels contain one or more alcohols: ethanol, isopropanol – or a combination of the two.
The most common type contains between 60% and 95% ethanol and is equivalent to 120-proof liquor. In contrast, vodka is 80-proof.
As well as the alcohol content being high enough for you to overdose before you even start to feel drunk, the other chemicals that make up hand gel are not remotely fit for human consumption and there’s often no way of telling just how toxic the ingredients in such gels are.
Last year the British Medical Journal published a report warning that 'swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitiser can kill'.
After analysing coroners' reports from two such deaths, it said: "The public is largely unaware of the potential safety hazards of this form of hand hygiene, which has become commonplace in homes, hospitals, schools, workplaces and public venues in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic."
And it warned that 'more needs to be done to protect those at risk of unintentional and intentional swallowing of this chemical, such as children'.
In the UK alone, alcohol-based hand sanitiser poisonings reported to the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) rose by 157% between 2019 and 2020, from 155 (January 1 to September 16) to 398 (January 1 to September 14).
