Hand Sanitizer - Uses

Uses

Consumer alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and health care hand alcohol or alcohol hand antiseptic agents, are antiseptic products used to avoid transmission of pathogens. These exist in liquid, foam, and easy-flowing gel formulations. The level of alcohol varies between 60% and 85%. The most commonly used level is 62%.

Alcohol rub sanitizers kill most bacteria, fungi and some viruses. Alcohol rub sanitizers containing at least 70% alcohol (mainly ethyl alcohol) kill 99.9% of the bacteria on hands 30 seconds after application and 99.99% to 99.999% in one minute.

When hands are not visibly dirty, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many other world public health authorities recommend alcohol hand sanitizers as an acceptable alternative to soap and water for hand hygiene.

The CDC Clean Hands campaign instructs the public how to use hand sanitizer properly:

When using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer:

• Apply product to the palm of one hand.
• Rub hands together.
• Rub the product over all surfaces of hands and fingers until hands are dry.

Mayo Clinic adds:

• Apply enough of the product to the palm of your hand to wet your hands completely.
• Rub your hands together, covering all surfaces until they're dry.
• If your hands are visibly dirty, however, wash with soap and water.

For health care, optimal disinfection requires attention to all exposed surfaces such as around the fingernails, between the fingers, on the back of the thumb, and around the wrist. Hand alcohol should be thoroughly rubbed into the hands and on the lower forearm for a duration of at least 30 seconds and then allowed to air dry. To minimize carryover, jewelry should be removed from hands during use.

The Mayo Clinic recommends washing hands or sanitizing

• before preparing food, eating, treating wounds or giving medicine, touching a sick or injured person, inserting or removing contact lenses
• after preparing food (especially raw meat or poultry), using the toilet, changing a diaper, touching an animal or animal toys, leashes or waste, blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing into your hands, treating wounds, touching a sick or injured person, handling garbage or something that could be contaminated, such as a cleaning cloth or soiled shoes.

Despite common perceptions, alcohol-based hand sanitizers are well-adapted to the skin. Also, use of alcohol-based hand gels dries skin less, leaving more moisture in the epidermis, than hand washing with antiseptic/antimicrobial soap and water.

Alcohol is considered haraam (sinful) in Islamic tradition. However, Islamic scholars such as Rajab Abu Mleeh state that the alcohol in hand sanitizer used as medicine is halal, or permissible, in Islam. He claims that protection against disease is among the aims that Muslims are commanded to pursue, so it is permissible to touch alcohol even if it is indisputably impure according to Islamic law. The Muslim Council of Britain concurs. Studies show that when used as directed, the alcohol in hand sanitizer evaporates and is not absorbed significantly through the skin so it cannot cause intoxication.