Comments on: Hand Sanitizers Will Be the Death of Us All

By: WallMountedHDD

WallMountedHDD — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:48:12 +0000

The amount of misinformation here is staggering. Seriously, people, lock yourselves in your houses. The fountain of smart hasn’t been located yet.

By: B-rye

B-rye — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:39:16 +0000

One thing has always bothered me about hand sanitizers. Here in the lab when we use EtOH to disinfect our lab benches we must have – at least – a 5 minute contact time to achieve an effective kill. That will do for most viruses – bacteria are typically 10 minutes. EtOH based hand sanitizers are on your hands for what like 10 seconds? Also, if your hands are visibly dirty, the organic material will dilute or inactivate at least some of the ethanol. Those of you in labs try this. Get some bacterial culture plates (BAP or nutrient agar), streak one with your non washed finger. Rub on some hand “sanitizer” and then streak a second culture plate. Incubate them both for 48 hours. Guess what – they both grow lots of bacteria. People should keep in mind that we are virtually and constantly swimming in bacteria. They are all around us – were here billions of years before us and will be here long after we’re gone – get used to it!! The only thing that is “sterile” is the stuff that I take out of the autocalve.

Later,

B-rye

By: evening

evening — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:26:39 +0000

Bill – I don’t remember what it is called and it has been hard to find on teh tubes. IIRC, avoidance is the key – wear gloves when washing dishes and the like.

Plus, I can drink upwards of 13 glasses of water a day, so that’s a lot of peeing. Esp at home, do I *really* need to wash my hands every time, when I’m careful about wiping (which I am b/c of the hand washing thing)? It gets a little ridiculous after a while when there are times you’re going once an hour.

And thanks for the info, Molly!

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:15:49 +0000

I want to second what Molly said, and add that any sanitizer you get must have at least 60% alcohol or ethanol. There are a lot of occasions where you just aren’t going to be able to get to a sink (public meetings), and having the Purel on standby is good alternative.

I remember Bush getting some ridicule for hitting the sanitizer after the handshake with some dignitary, but that’s actually a really good practice, even if it looks anal (!).

By: billsimmon

billsimmon — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:09:20 +0000

Thanks for the schooling, Molls. Still, I was reacting to what I perceived as people saying things like “Good thing I don’t have to worry because I use Purell every 5 minutes!” You still have to, you know, wash your hands.

By: Molly

Molly — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:41:56 +0000

P.S. Regarding, “The instant hand sanitizers resulted in a significant increase in bacterial numbers on hands.”. There is not nearly enough information contained in this quip to make it valid point of discussion. We don’t know ANYTHING about this study except that it was published fifteen years ago in a dairy/food industry journal. What type of hand sanitizer? Alcohol based? What type of bacteria? What were the methods and conditions of the study? What quantity and exposure period was used? Were these soiled hands or “clean” hands? Was it ever independently verified? Etc., etc..

By: Molly

Molly — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:33:23 +0000

This post is quite contrary to everything I’ve been taught about hand hygiene as a hospital employee, Red Cross infection control and first aid instructor, and person living with a severely suppressed immune system.

1. The Making Light and Treehugger links you posted both advocate hand sanitizers as a supplement to hand washing.

2. That About.com link and the associated Science Daily article were both written in 2000 regarding the same review written by a Purdue food industry researcher. The FDA site you linked to and quoted from is about food handling safety. Safe food handling procedures are different from hospital and personal protection procedures! They are generally concerned about a different set of “bugs” (pathogenic bacteria, natural toxins, and parasitic protazoa/worms – not viruses) and the procedures are designed around the need to manually remove particles of food from hands, wrists, and forearms. Etc.. Here is the FDA rundown on the differences between food service hand hygiene vs. other settings: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/handhyg.html You’ll find plenty of other Science Daily articles proclaiming the efficacy of hand sanitizers in reducing communicable disease transmission in a variety of settings from hospitals to kindergartens.

3. For most of us, sinks and soap are not as available as we might like them to be to provide adequate washing opportunities. Aside from this, many sinks are in restrooms which require you touch a door handle to exit, immediately redepositing pathogens to your freshly cleaned hands.

4. The article entitled “Are we ruining our Immune Systems…” is an opinion piece written by a 23 year old amateur journalist/poet whose qualifications are a high school diploma and a BA in history. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it hardly makes him an authority on microbiology, immunology, or epidemiology.

5. Nothing will ever replace a healthy diet, regular exercise, and diligent hand washing as the basic recipe to stay healthy. But hand sanitizers containing at least a 60% alcohol concentration are a wonderful supplement to these basics. It is true that the rhinoviruses (common cold) are invulnerable to alcohol, but many other viruses (and bacteria and other pathogens) are not. For instance, alcohol based hand sanitizers are effective against influenza viruses.

By: billsimmon

billsimmon — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:06:07 +0000

Eve, what causes the itchy bumps? Is that diagnosed? Is it treatable?

Regarding your conclusion, maybe re-read this bit:

“The instant hand sanitizers resulted in a significant increase in bacterial numbers on hands.”

In other words, hand sanitizers may be doing more harm than good.

By: evening

evening — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:15:50 +0000

Sorry, I can’t possibly wash my hands that much. When I do I get itchy bumps under the skin of my palms. I wash them when I come in from being out and about, but not before/after each meal, etc. That’s just too much (no, I don’t wash after every pee break either – I drink a lot of water, and is how I learned I can’t wash my hands too much!).

I think the hand sanitizer will be good for when you’re running errands and such, touching lots of things. Get back into car and give em a wipe – that or every now and then cleaning the steering wheel with it.

By: Nate Orshan

Nate Orshan — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:27:15 +0000

After seeing so many guys exit restrooms with but a brief splashing of water on hands, if pausing by the sink at all, (and I mean, at the effing HOSPITAL! [Visitors, not doctors]) I’m not sure which of the following conclusions to draw:

a. Our immune systems are much stronger than we give them credit for being;

b. Remedial handwashing education is needed at every age level;

c. We are so very, very doomed.