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Speaker 1: We also know it was reported that territory businesses are

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Speaker 1: being asked to remove hand sanitizer from public areas amid

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Speaker 1: an increase in consumption. That's according to a report by

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Speaker 1: the paper. Now it's understood that the chief Health Officer

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Speaker 1: had sent a letter to local businesses earlier in the

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Speaker 1: month telling them sanitizer is no longer necessary and can

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Speaker 1: sometimes be misused. The article also claims the police Commissioner,

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Speaker 1: Michael Murphy is considering treating sanitizer the same as deodorance

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Speaker 1: and keeping it under lock and key. The NT's Chief

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Speaker 1: Health Officer, Christine Connors joins me on the line. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to Christine.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, thanks.

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Speaker 1: So much for your time this morning. Sorry about our

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Speaker 1: phone issues. Now, are you aware of an increase in

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Speaker 1: the consumption of hand sanitizer?

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Speaker 2: Look, we are not seeing it in the health system,

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Speaker 2: but we are getting anecdotal reports and then of course

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Speaker 2: through the police reporting that they are coming across people

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Speaker 2: misusing hand sanitizer. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right, So there's not necessarily figures that support it, but

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Speaker 1: certainly anecdotally that is what you're being told.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is what is being discussed in Alice Springs particularly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And so what how are people consuming this?

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Speaker 2: Look, I don't know. At a personal level, I think

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Speaker 2: it tastes pretty disgusting. I think people are mixing it

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Speaker 2: with other sort of drinks. You know, there is a

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Speaker 2: proportion of alcohol in hand sanitizer. That's how it works

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Speaker 2: as a hand sanitizer. And yeah, I think obviously this

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Speaker 2: is not a common behavior. This is a very unusual behavior.

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Speaker 2: This is obviously people feeling fairly desperate. But it is

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Speaker 2: not like it's a widespread behavior that is happening all

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Speaker 2: the time everywhere. It's a very uncommon, unusual behavior that's

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Speaker 2: happening occasionally.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, So how detrimental is it to someone's health

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Speaker 1: if they do consume hand sanitizer. I mean, I would

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Speaker 1: imagine it's pretty bad.

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Speaker 2: I don't know that there's been a lot of research on. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: it does have alcohol concentrate, and so if you manage

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Speaker 2: to drink enough, you could cause yourself harm. It will

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Speaker 2: have other chemicals which are not meant for consumption in

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Speaker 2: terms of what would it actually do to you. Look, again,

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Speaker 2: it's so unusual and people I think have almost never

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Speaker 2: drunk it to the level where they presented to the

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Speaker 2: hospital it's very hard to say. It's more that it

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Speaker 2: does have a proportion of alcohol and so therefore which

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Speaker 2: is not meant for human consumption, and so therefore you

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Speaker 2: don't really know how much people might be consuming. It

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Speaker 2: obviously is not meant for consumption, and we would prefer

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Speaker 2: people do not drink it, which is why you know,

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Speaker 2: in Central Australia, the Chief Minister's Department facilitates regular meetings

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Speaker 2: of all of the government agencies and often key non

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Speaker 2: government agencies so that people work together and collaborate and

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Speaker 2: in solving issues, and this was an issue that had

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Speaker 2: been discussed, so they asked if the Chief Health Officer

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Speaker 2: could provide some information, which is what we've done through

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Speaker 2: that Central Australian Office, which is really just reminding retailers

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Speaker 2: that you know, during the pandemic, yes there was a

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Speaker 2: te direction and people did need to have those COVID

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Speaker 2: safety plans. That's no longer a requirement, and they may

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Speaker 2: not even need to stop hand sanitizer. I mean, we

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Speaker 2: use hand sanitizer within a hospital setting, but really for

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Speaker 2: most of us in our daily life, just soap and

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Speaker 2: water is perfectly fine. If they do want to stock

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Speaker 2: hand sanitizer. Given that an occasional person is misusing it,

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Speaker 2: then keeping it behind the counter needs to be requested.

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Speaker 2: Have some control over people being able to to access it. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean, that's it. It's as simple as that.

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Speaker 1: So Christine, it sounds as though that letter had gone out,

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Speaker 1: that you'd issue that letter to some local businesses or

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Speaker 1: to local businesses as a result of this being raised

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Speaker 1: as a concern in Alice Springs and at that level

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Speaker 1: where all departments are trying to work together to try

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Speaker 1: and sort out the issue of the misuse of alcohol

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Speaker 1: in many ways, but in this instance hand sanitizer.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. And you know that regional Coordination group, I mean

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Speaker 2: they discussed many, many, many issues. Obviously, as you've said, Katie,

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Speaker 2: alcohol is a significant one that that group has worked

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Speaker 2: together on. And yeah, this is a relatively small issue.

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Speaker 2: But it was really just providing that information to retailers

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Speaker 2: who you know, quite frankly, very cooperative, always keen to

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Speaker 2: support their community and collaborate, and it's really just giving

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Speaker 2: them the information to that they need to say, Okay, yep,

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Speaker 2: well we might just stop purchasing hand sanitizer, or we

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Speaker 2: will keep hand sanitizer with deodorants that some people may

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Speaker 2: misuse as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say, unfortunately, it's it's sort

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Speaker 1: of not the only you know, the only reporting or

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Speaker 1: anecdotal thing that we've been told that gets miss used.

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Speaker 1: I mean, deodorant seems to be something that's quite harmful

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Speaker 1: and unfortunately is something that people also miss use.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's a range of volatile substances that you know, again, intermittently,

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Speaker 2: communities will go through phases where it might become more

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Speaker 2: of a thing that people are using, and then it

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Speaker 2: seems to settle down again. And again, just really basic

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Speaker 2: steps of securing it, having it behind the counter, requiring

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Speaker 2: to request it from a staff member. You know, often

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Speaker 2: that acts as sufficient controls.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. But so by the sounds of it with the

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Speaker 1: hand sanitizer, I mean, if some businesses do want it

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Speaker 1: to want to continue to stock it, that might be

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Speaker 1: an option for them as well.

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Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, yeah, no, I want to stock it absolutely,

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Speaker 2: And again it's just really letting them know that, Okay,

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Speaker 2: there's the occasional person who might misuse this. You're a

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Speaker 2: community member, you want to collaborate and look after your community,

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Speaker 2: maybe just secure it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, Christine Connors, the Chief Health Officer for the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Always appreciate your time. I guess I will

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Speaker 1: ask you just finally. I mean, is nty healths working

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Speaker 1: continuing to work with police around the hand sanitizer. It

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Speaker 1: sounds like from what you've said it is more in

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Speaker 1: centralist is something that's come up at those at those

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Speaker 1: meetings that are held in Central Australia.

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Speaker 2: Look, as I said, these issues are often dealt with

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Speaker 2: through these regional coordination committees facilitated through the Chief Minister's Department.

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Speaker 2: They've been very successful across many of the regions. I'm

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Speaker 2: not hearing this as an issue from my health colleagues

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Speaker 2: in other regions at this stage.

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Speaker 1: Well, Christine Connors, good to speak with you this morning.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time. Thank you very much for

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Speaker 1: having a chat with me.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you