Active Ingredient
The way in which waterless hand sanitizers kill bacteria is with the active ingredient of alcohol. When the alcohol found in most hand sanitizers come into contact with bacteria, as well as viruses, it damages the exterior walls of these pathogens. Once the shell of the bacterium or virus is destroyed, the microbes deactivate, which means they can no longer invade the body and cause illness. However, the sanitizer must touch every area of the skin to be truly beneficial. If you're unable to coat your entire hand with the sanitizing agent, it's still possible for bacteria and viruses to remain active. Active bacteria or viruses can translate into sickness.
Application
When applying the hand sanitizer onto your skin, it's not only important to coat your hands with the solution, but also to allow it to dry. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, proper application should cause your hands to remain wet or moist for longer than 15 seconds. If it dries in a shorter time, you should use a larger amount of the sanitizing agent. Reapply and rub your hands together so that every inch of your skin is covered, keeping watch of the clock to gauge whether or not your hands remain moist for longer than 15 seconds. It may take some trial and error to determine the correct amount for the sanitizer to be effective for the size of your hands.
Simply using a hand sanitizer once won't necessarily protect you throughout the day. If a doorknob, phone or other object contains a bacterium or virus, you can still pick up the pathogen after you've sanitized your hands. Remember that it's the contact with the alcohol that deactivates the bacterium or virus, not a hand with dried alcohol. You'll need to reapply the sanitizer to destroy these newly acquired microbes. But you needn't go overboard; three to five applications each day is all you need to protect yourself.
Concentration
While proper application is important, it's also crucial to purchase an effective product. Not all hand sanitizers on the market contain the appropriate concentration of alcohol to kill the bacteria or viruses. Look for alcohol concentration levels above 60 percent. Many of the hand sanitizers come in concentrations upwards of 90 percent, so you shouldn't have an issue in finding a useful product at almost any store.
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