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Keeping your hands clean stops the transmission of several dangerous diseases. You may wash your hands with water and soap or you can sanitize them using hand sanitizers.

What exactly is hand sanitizer? A hand sanitizer is a gel, foam, and liquid solution that kills viruses and bacteria. It is most often used for cleaning hands when water and soap are not available. 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 many viruses. The amount of alcohol in these sanitizers varies between 60% and 85%. Most hand sanitizers found in the market contain 62% of alcohol. The most common brands of alcohol based hand sanitizers include Purell sanitizers, Avant, Sterillium, Desderman and Allsept S.

Some hand sanitizers come with extra ingredients including natural products and essential oils. These hand sanitizers can kill germs as well as moisturize the skin. Hospitals use sanitizer dispensers equipped with elbow controlled mechanism to prevent any contact when using the pump.

Non-alcohol based hand sanitizers use small quantity of benzalkonium chloride or triclosan to kill gems.

As they do not contain alcohol, which is a preservative, the non-alcohol based hand sanitizers could become contaminated.

User Guide to Hand Sanitizer

Everybody knows that hand sanitizers could kill most gems. How do we use it properly and when should we use it?

Below is the correct way to use hand sanitizer:

• Apply enough sanitizer gel to the palm of one hand.
• Rub the solution over all surfaces of your hands and fingers for few seconds until your hands are dry.
• If your hands are visibly dirty, you should wash them with soap and water.
• When to sanitize your hands? It would be a good idea to sanitizer your hands:
  • before and after preparing food.
  • before meals.
  • before and after treating wounds.
  • before inserting or removing contact lenses.
  • after changing a diaper.
  • after handling something that could be contaminated, such as garbage.

Health benefits of Hand Sanitizers

Despite common perceptions, alcohol-based hand sanitizers dries skin less than hand washing with soap and water.

Hand sanitizers kill viruses including flu virus, the common cold virus, and HIV and numerous bacteria for instance antibiotic resistant bacteria and TB bacteria. They also kill fungi.

Common Risks

Alcohol is flammable. Alcohol based hand sanitizers can catch fire of it. However, some hand sanitizers with high high water content or moisturizing agents 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.