Facts about Hand Sanitizer you weren't aware of!

ratna sarswat 09-Apr-2018 Image Source

Hand Sanitizer- a name commonly known to all !! Hand sanitizers are better substitute of soap and water. While travelling or outside your home you have no access to water or soap, the hand sanitizer is the most handy option. It is a small bottle carried by many when on the go. It kills the bacterias and germs but should not be used when hands are visibly dirty. It is available in gel, sprays, foam and wipes, some are alcohol based some alcohol-less; while some with some tree oil. All hand sanitizer products require National Drug Code designation in the United States and natural product number designation in Canada.

Six Things about Hand Sanitizers you may not be knowing:

2. Itâ€™s Existence!

It was first developed by an Ohio company called GOJO, founded in the 1940s. So in 1996, GOJO debuted Purell product that cleaned hands instantly without the need of soap, water or towel. In a study in BMC Infectious Diseases in 2010, it was found that that the office workers who were encouraged to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer at least 5 times a day were about 2-3 times less likely to get sick than those who continued to just wash their hands.

3. How to use Hand Sanitizers?

Apply a dime size amount to the palm of one hand and then rub your hands for 30 seconds covering surfaces of both the hands, including fingers space, back side of the hands.

4. When to use?

Before eating food, preparing it, while taking out your contact lenses, treating wound or after using the toilet, touching animals, coughing, handling garbage.

5. Must ingredients in Sanitizer

A hand sanitizer must have at least 60% of Alcohol in the form of ethyl alcohol which is the active ingredient to kill bacterias and germs. Inactive ingredients like Humectant for moisturisation, Aloe vera which replace the water & prevent dryness and Vitamin E for gentleness.

6. Prevents dryness!

It also contains humectant like glycerine which prevents the dryness and keep the hands smooth.

7. Kills bacteria!

Hand sanitizers kills microbes, fungi, the Influenza virus, HIV, the Hepatitis-B virus and drug-resistant bacteria. Once you have rubbed your hand with sanitizer and dried off, you have killed 99.9% bacterias. Families who use hand sanitizers, saw a lower risk of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections. Isopropyl alcohol will kill 99.99 percent or more of all non-spore forming bacteria in less than 30 seconds, both in the laboratory and on human skin.

Precaution to be taken as hand sanitizers are flammable. Alcohol may strip the skin of the outer layer of oil, which may have negative effects on barrier function of the skin.