Cleaning Both Hands with Hand Sanitizer
Washing your hand frequently with soap and water can prevent the spread of common flu. If water and soap are not available, you can use hand hand sanitizers.
What's hand sanitizer? A hand sanitizer is a gel, foam, and liquid solution which acts as an alternative to hand washing with water and soap. You will find two types of hand sanitizers, alcohol based hand sanitizers and non-alcohol hand sanitizers.
Alcohol based hand sanitizers use alcohol to kill most bacteria, fungi and several viruses. You will discover different amount of concentration of alcohol in several sanitizers. Some have as high as 85% of alcohol whereas others have 60%. Many hand sanitizers found in the market contain 62% of alcohol. The most common brands of alcohol hand rubs include Purell sanitizers, Avant, Sterillium, Desderman and Allsept S.
Some hand sanitizers are produced with extra ingredients which include natural products and essential oils. These hand sanitizers not only contain alcohol that is necessary to kill germs effectively and safely, however they also contain additional components that could moisturize and condition the skin. Hospitals use sanitizer dispensers equipped with elbow controlled mechanism to prevent any contact with the pump.
Non-alcohol based hand sanitizers use chemical agents including benzalkonium chloride or triclosan to kill germs. The quantity of benzalkonium chloride or triclosan of these products is low.
Given that they do not contain alcohol, which is a preservative, the non-alcohol based hand sanitizers are succeptible to contamination.
User Guide to Hand Sanitizer
Hand sanitizers could kill most gems immediately while on your skin. How do we use it properly and when should we use it?
This is the correct way to use hand sanitizer:
- Apply enough solution to wet your hands
- Rub your hands together. Cover both hands and fingers with the solution. Keep rubbing until your hands are dry.
- If your hands are visibly dirty, you should wash them with soap and water.
- When to sanitize your hands? You should sanitizer your hands:
- before and after food preparation.
- before meals.
- before and after treating patients.
- before inserting or removing contact lenses.
- after changing a diaper.
- after handling something that could be contaminated, such as garbage.
Advantages of Hand Sanitizers
Most people think that the alcohol based hand sanitizers could make your skin dry. Well it is true. However, it dries skin less than hand washing with soap and water.
Hand sanitizers kill viruses like flu virus, the common cold virus, and HIV and a number of bacteria for instance antibiotic resistant bacteria and TB bacteria. They also kill fungi.
The Risk
Alcohol is flammable. Alcohol based hand sanitizers can catch fire of it. However, certain some hand sanitizers with high concentration of water or moisturizing content may not produce this effect. To minimize the risk of fire, it would be a good idea to rub your hands until dry. This is because it only takes few second for the flammable alcohol in hand sanitizers to evaporate into the air. Your hands are dry means that the alcohol is gone.
