Is Hand Sanitizer Actually Bad For You?

Hand sanitizers are very useful when running water and soap are out of reach but are they worth using more often or should you try to avoid them altogether. Hand santizers contain ingredients such as alcohol of 70% that are used to kill microbes. When left on the skin for more than 30 seconds, it can kill up to 99.99% of bacteria present and even certain types of viruses like Influenza A. The hand sanitizer opens up the cell membranes of the bacteria but they can't kill very tiny cells such as Botulism and Norovirus. 

There are also non-alcohol based hand sanitizers which contain the ingredients such as Triclosan, Benzalkonium, and Chlorhexidine may be just bacteriostatic which means they only prevent formation of bacteria. 

There was a study shown in 2009 with different groups of people that contaminated their hands with the virus Influenza A and the group that was found with the least bacteria was from the group that used soap and water to clean their hands for 40 seconds following with a paper towel for drying afterwards. Therefore it comes out as a method of superior infection control. It is known that hot water can kill bacteria but actually it only happens when the water is at the temperature of 99.98 degrees celcius which would actually burn your skin. In that case, you should just use cold water instead. 

There are also some antibacterial soap that contain Triclosan. There are many studies that have shown that they turn out to be no better than regular soaps. Furthermore, the triclosan is washed down and flows into the rivers or lakes which is one of the top 10 contaminents that is found in the rivers of America. 

At the end of the day, your best bet is using regular soap and washing with cold water saving hand sanitizer for sink situations and avoiding actibacterial soaps for the sake of your health, environment and future generations.