WASHINGTON — Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are the ubiquitous little squeeze-bottle heroes of airports and hospitals, our allies during cold and flu season, and supposedly effective against a huge variety of disease-causing viruses and bacteria. But what’s really in hand sanitizers? And is it true that they kill 99.99% of germs, as popular brands claim?
At 3 years old, my kid called it “hannatizer.” One word for hand sanitizer. So that’s what everyone around here calls it 11 years later.
“Don’t touch anything” and “Look with your eyes not your hands, stupid” got me thru my childhood without it.
We use hannatizer when chickens jump the 5 foot fenced backyard to scratch the leaf covered flower beds out front. Which is about every hour, or when I feel like it, or when someone driving by gets nosy. If people minded their own business it would be used less.
Beefeaters is a good sanitizer. A couple of drops on the hands while pouring into a glass over ice and yer clean inside and out!
They’re listed as Class I flammable liquids. We’re mounting accelerants on our walls at work and school and hospitals.
Lazlo was a standard American boy.
My exposure to dirt and germs have given me my present immune system.
I visit people’s homes and shake hands during work
I buy that stuff by the gallon.
Haven’t been sick in years
It’s a good substitute for Sterno.
I have a bottle handy to remove paint, varnish, deck stain, etc. from vinyl and other surfaces. I got a lot of deck stain splatters on our hot tub cover one summer while refurbishing the upper deck. It’s the only thing I’ve found that works like a champ. Squirt it on, let it dwell for about ten minutes and the dried on paint, etc. wipes right off.
I like mine on ice with a twist.
Straining Sterno (est. 1914) through cheesecloth was a Prohibition Era source for alcohol. It also helped cull the population of street bums in the 1930s.
Never used the stuff.
You go in a cruise ship restaurant and they practically hose you down with that perfumed napalm every chance they get. Good thing they don’t allow smoking anymore. Especially on Baked Alaska night.
F.D.R. in Hell , I guess they drank the Fireside portion of your Chats.
soap and water works wonders and gets rid of the dirt too.
Of course hand sanitizer is racist. We would never have hand sanitizer if we never had black people. Just look for the used dental pick along with a picked clean chicken bone in the parking lot, then you’ll know if you need hand sanitizer to go inside.
They don’t work. I just got off a cruise ship where the noro virus attacked over 200 passengers. All over the ship are those hand sanitizers. At the buffet, there’s one before entering the buffet and you are asked to use it by the attendent. Despite that, it didn’t phase the noro virus. Keep your hands out of your mouth and eyes. Don’t touch door handles with your bare hands. I see people licking their fingers all the time in restaurants and on the ship. Nasty ass behavior – that’s where the noro begins, from wiping your butt and not washing your hands afterwards. Yep, it’s gross and so is vomiting and crapping your brains out at the same time. You just wanna die! DH and I have never been sick with it, but have talked to people who did.
I do use them, out of necessity and aseptic concerns. They are not my first choice.
They do enable and accelerate the absorption of BPA from thermal printer paper, and that has consequences:
Begin PSA:
“Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disrupting environmental contaminant used in a wide variety of products, and BPA metabolites are found in almost everyone’s urine, suggesting widespread exposure from multiple sources. Regulatory agencies estimate that virtually all BPA exposure is from food and beverage packaging. However, free BPA is applied to the outer layer of thermal receipt paper present in very high (∼20 mg BPA/g paper) quantities as a print developer. Not taken into account when considering thermal paper as a source of BPA exposure is that some commonly used hand sanitizers, as well as other skin care products, contain mixtures of dermal penetration enhancing chemicals that can increase by up to 100 fold the dermal absorption of lipophilic compounds such as BPA. We found that when men and women held thermal receipt paper immediately after using a hand sanitizer with penetration enhancing chemicals, significant free BPA was transferred to their hands and then to French fries that were eaten, and the combination of dermal and oral BPA absorption led to a rapid and dramatic average maximum increase (Cmax) in unconjugated (bioactive) BPA of ∼7 ng/mL in serum and ∼20 µg total BPA/g creatinine in urine within 90 min. The default method used by regulatory agencies to test for hazards posed by chemicals is intra-gastric gavage. For BPA this approach results in less than 1% of the administered dose being bioavailable in blood. It also ignores dermal absorption as well as sublingual absorption in the mouth that both bypass first-pass liver metabolism. The elevated levels of BPA that we observed due to holding thermal paper after using a product containing dermal penetration enhancing chemicals have been related to an increased risk for a wide range of developmental abnormalities as well as diseases in adults.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4206219/
Sorry for that, but if hand sanitizers are being discussed, that aspect of them should be included. It is surprising, how few are aware of this.
I wash my hands when I take off gloves (PPE), and I often wash my hands as soon as possible, after using hand sanitizers.
Wash you hands!
Whatever you use make certain it DOESN’T CONTAIN TRICLOSAN.
Triclosan caused a bad dermatitis outbreak on my fingers.
Took the skin off.
It was banned in some states and they are removing it across the board.
It was in so many products most Americans had it in their bodies.
Whether you approve it or not, most all staff at hospitals and healthcare offices RELY on this in lieu of washing with soap or a better germicide hand cleaner. Fed standard.
The sad truth is, most staff people do it so quickly with just a lil dab, that there is absolutely NO WAY such a GESTURE kills 99.9% of germs, let alone the pesky pathogens.
Think about how many people handle money and how many of them don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom. Think of what’s on cell phones and computer keyboards, Take a look at touch screens on phones and computers. That right there will convince you to use hand sanitizers often and wash your hands a lot. And don’t rub your eyes or your mouth without washing your hands first. I carry a bottle of hand sanitizer in my pocket and a larger bottle to refill it about once a week – haven’t had worse than a sniffle in 20 years and I don’t pass germs to other people.
I’m a hand-washer, myself, but you know what hand sanitizer is really useful for? Cleaning your phone or tablet screen.