The youths, between 13 and 15 years old, were found on Saturday evening in Nacka and Tyresö outside Stockholm.
There are reports in at least one of these cases that they have bought so-called foul spirits, says Ola Österling, press spokesperson for the police in Stockholm.
Five people have been arrested and detained, suspected of having sold the alcohol, of which one is a minor. They are suspected of serious unlawful handling of spirits, serious unlawful sale of alcohol, and causing bodily harm, according to the police.
"Outraged and concerned"
The incident is "terrible", according to Minister of Health and Social Affairs Elisabeth Lann (KD), who is also responsible for youth issues.
"I am both outraged and concerned. The police and healthcare have made important efforts to care for the children and arrest the suspects for the sale. But I also want to urge parents to talk to their children about the dangers of smuggled spirits", she says in a written comment to TT.
The alcohol has not yet been analyzed, but the youths show the same type of symptoms as several of the youths who were taken to the hospital on Friday evening. They had been poisoned by isopropanol after drinking alcohol they had bought from a so-called "vodka car" they had contacted via Snapchat.
Erik Lindeman, a doctor at the Poison Information Center, says that isopropanol is much less serious to ingest than, for example, wood spirits or windshield washer fluid - and that it does not lead to severe poisoning in itself.
But with isopropanol, you become about twice as drunk per unit of volume as with regular alcohol. Then it breaks down into acetone, which makes you feel affected even during the hangover.
High intoxication
The risk with isopropanol is thus mainly that the level of intoxication becomes extremely high.
It can make you unable to protect your ability to breathe, you become deeply unconscious and then you can die, says Erik Lindeman.
It is particularly serious if young people, who have a poorer physical ability to handle alcohol, drink it.
He is worried that it seems to be organized sales of a product with industrial alcohol, where the people behind it do not seem to care about how it affects those who drink the spirits.
They seem to take it very lightly what is actually in the bottles. It is grotesque and indicates a complete lack of judgment or responsibility for the person who is to drink the product.
Isopropanol is a colorless alcohol that is included in, among other things, carburetor cleaner, windshield washer fluid, and disinfectants.
Isopropanol can be dangerous to ingest, especially for children. Symptoms that may occur include, among other things, intoxication, low blood pressure, vomiting, and abdominal pain.
If a small child has ingested the product, the advice is:
Give a little to drink.
Call the Poison Information Center and check the risk of the product.
Go to the hospital in case of intoxication symptoms or if more than a sip has been consumed.
Source: Poison Information Center
