Clean hands is one of the top ways to avoid getting sick—or to avoid passing an illness on to others, advises the New York City Department of Health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends washing hands over utilizing hand sanitizer, but points to alcohol-based sanitizers as a good backup option if soap and water are not available. You need to apply sanitizer properly—and get the right kind—for it to be effective, however. You also need to keep some safety precautions in mind.
Significance
Hand sanitizer can be used to combat viruses and bacteria, reports CNN. The alcohol in the sanitizer disrupts the coating on bacteria and virus particles, essentially deactivating them. Sanitizer only works well, however, if your hands are not visibly soiled, according to NYCDH. If you have bodily fluids or visible soil on your hands you need to wash them.
Potential
In schools, sanitizer available in classrooms helps cut down on absenteeism because it’s hard to ensure that effective and consistent hand washing among the students, notes Brian Hammond, lead author for a study on absenteeism published in the “American Journal of Infection Control.” Hammond found that adding alcohol gel sanitizers to classrooms cut absenteeism due to infection by almost 20 percent.
Features
Hand sanitizer needs at least 60 percent alcohol to be effective, according to the Mayo Clinic. A sanitizer that is between 60 percent and 95 percent alcohol, in fact, is optimal, reports CNN. Some products contain as little as 40 percent alcohol, so it’s important to read the label on sanitizer products before you buy them, reports The New York Times.
Expert Insight
You need to use enough hand sanitizer to wet your hands completely, advise the experts at MayoClinic.com, and then rub your hands together for 25 seconds or until they are dry. If your hands dry within 15 seconds, however, you probably did not use enough sanitizer. Make sure you get your entire hand wet—including between fingers—because sanitizer only works on areas it contacts, so missed spots mean you might still have bacteria or viruses on your hands, Dr. Lisa Bernstein, Emory University School of Medicine assistant professor, tells CNN.
Considerations
It’s wise to utilize sanitizer when you enter—and also when you leave—a new area, such as a room where you attend a meeting, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health professor advises on CNN. It’s also a good idea to use it before you hold someone else’s phone or type on a borrowed computer keyboard, University of Michigan an epidemiologist Allison Aiello tells The New York Times. That’s because such surfaces, along with work desks, are worse than bathrooms when it comes to micro-organisms that exist there, Aiello says. Using sanitizers also is a good idea before and after making contact with a person who is ill and after sneezing, blowing your nose or coughing into your hands, advises NYCDH.
Warning
You need to take some precautions when you use hand sanitizer, including supervising use among young children, otherwise keeping such products out of children’s reach, and not using sanitizer on kids younger than 2. Also avoid swallowing sanitizer or getting it in your mouth or eyes, and remember that sanitizer is flammable so keep it away from heat and flame, advises NYCDH.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Hand Washing Do’s and Don’ts
- CNN: Hand Sanitizer—How it Protects You
- The New York Times: Hand Sanitizers—Good or Bad?; Deborah Franklin; 2006
- PubMed.gov: “American Journal of Infection Control;” Hand sanitizer; B. Hammond; 2000
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Clean Hands Save Lives
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