True story. About 15 or 20 years ago, before hand sanitizers became commonplace, I had this idea. Put rubbing alcohol in a small plastic bottle (you can get at any drug store) and use it to rub on my hands, as an antimicrobial. Then I was surprised when hand sanitizers came into being. And seemingly right after I conceived of the idea!
Anyways, my idea may still have some merit. For one thing, ounce-for-ounce, hand sanitizers are actually rather expensive. Rubbing alcohol, by contrast is cheap, as is those little all-purpose plastic bottles they sell at drug stores (which are additionally reusable).
Martha Stewart? Are you listening?
I might as well tell you my other weird brush with product ideas. It was the late 80’s. And I doing a mirror optics experiment for physics class, in high school. The image in the mirror is called the “virtual image”. And it dawned on me. You could create a kind of artificial reality, with goggles–and I even conceived of the full body suit thing! I conceived of the idea of virtual reality! I even used that very term in my idea, IIRC.
Anyways, I am pretty sure that was just before virtual reality came out and was conceived. But you know, it is a funny thing about memory. I remember my idea coming first. But of course, I could always be wrong. Again, memory is just like that.
What do the rest of you think? And will any of you use my rubbing alcohol idea?
Hand sanatizers aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be:
I’m not really fond of your idea even if they were. Alcohol just seems clumsily. With the gel, I can put it on my hand and it will stay put until I’m ready to rub it around.
Sure you can make your own hand sanitizer. That’s what you’re asking, really, isn’t it?
If you JUST put rubbing alcohol in a bottle, people won’t like it. It smells really harsh and is hard to pour because it’s so thin. But it will work, sure.
I make mine with 99% rubbing alcohol, some water, glycerin and propylene glycol as humectants (moisturizers which grab water out of the air), enough water to dilute the final product to about 70% alcohol, and essential oils to provide a nice scent. (What can I say? I’m a home nurse and DIYer. Those little bottles of hand sanitizer do add up, and I’ve got all those ingredients sitting around for other purposes anyway.)
Hand sanitizers shouldn’t be used on visibly dirty hands (because they don’t remove dirt), or while wearing jewelry (because they don’t reliably sanitize under and around jewelry) and you should use enough of them to need to keep rubbing your hands for 30 seconds. If you or anyone you live with has ever had C. diff, then be aware that hand sanitizers don’t kill that particular bacteria, and are probably not your best choice for exclusive hand cleaning, but are better than nothing at all when you can’t get to soap and water.
Really? Never used it? Not even when entering a hospital? A nursing home? The doctor’s office?
I’ve used them in all of these places, because well, I thought it helped keep everybody safer!
Last thing I want to do is pass something on to a nursing home client or hospital patient. And I sure don’t want to catch something at the Doctor’s office!
Around here they are positioned at every hospital, nursing home entrance and most doctor’s offices. Usually with a sign asking you to use them.
In a FEW cases, it keeps people safer. But in the majority of cases, the presence of sanitizer is nothing more than a sign that society is slowly succumbing to a mass case of germophobia.
I definitely agree that we have a mass case of germophobia problem. On the other hand, hands are disgusting. And now that we have so many handheld devices we touch constantly and rarely or never clean, it’s worse than when it was good clean honest dirt from the fields and fireplaces. 22 million school days lost to colds and flus, 111 million workdays and billions of dollars every year…yeah, if a little hand sanitizer can help cut that down, I’m in favor.
Or, people could just wash their hands every couple of hours, say, when they go to the bathroom. That would be nice. But it doesn’t happen. The nice thing about publicly hung hand sanitizer is it uses social pressure to increase the use.
I just left a job where we would work on the controls for sewage treatment plants a life stations. I was pretty happy to have a bottle of purel in the truck.
It’s also handy for picnics and the like.
I totally don’t get keeping a bottle next to a sink, as I have seen. I guess you might put a dollop in you hand to use after you operate the bathroom doorknob?
The grocery store provides antiseptic wipes for the shopping cart handles, and hand sanitizer at the store front. I always use those. Can you imagine how dirty the handles on the carts are? People picking up leaky packages of raw chicken and other meats. Yuck.
At work we’re required to use stair handrails and they’ll always have hand sanitizers at the end. But they just seem kind of gross to me, a gel that you don’t wash off. I’d much rather just stop by the restroom for soap & water.
My young niece calls hand sanitizers “Hanitizers.” You can use that for your product if you want, she’s too young to care about germs or copyright infringement.
Generally speaking, hand sanitizer is considered an imperfect alternative to hand washing, because washing physically removes bacteria and viruses, while sanitizer primarily kills bacteria and doesn’t remove anything. In other words, all the health authorities much prefer that people wash their hands, but if you can’t wash your hands, hand sanitizer does a good enough job at killing pathogenic bacteria that it’s better than nothing.
So if you’re in the office, wash your hands, but if you’re somewhere that you can’t wash your hands, hand sanitizer is a good thing to have on hand.
The one thing to watch out for on homebrew hand sanitizer is that rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) isn’t quite as effective as the ethanol usually used in such products.
I’m way more worried about the poopy butts from all of the kids. Meat is usually wrapped. That being said, I don’t use the hand sanitizers. For that sort of stuff I have an immune system.
I do wash my hands with soap and hot water every time I go to the bathroom. I wasn’t as strict about it in years past but Cecil made a great point: it’s not because you got your hands dirty, but because you’re there anyway.
I have noticed I get a lot less colds with this practice. People all around me in the office get sick and I avoid it. Used to be I got a single cold a year - now it’s every 4-5 years.
I also use the wipes at the gym; much more convenient than spray, but it is a sign of our disposable society. And I keep some hand sanitizer at my desk. Not because I can’t just wash my hands but sometimes it’s just nice to use.
So…you go into a nursing home and there’s a station with provided hand sanitizer and a request that you use it before entering to protect their at risk patients, and what? You just walk on by? Ignore it? Really?
I foolishly just assumed, apparently incorrectly, that most people would do so!
I’ve never once used hand sanitizer but I suppose if I were to encounter a situation like that, I would. But never once in my life have I entered an establishment where they have hand sanitizer which they post a sign encouraging everyone to use.
Are you serious? It’s for times when water or soap are not immediately available. Of course you use water and soap if you’re in a bathroom or kitchen or someplace else you would normally wash your hands. But dirt and germs often get picked up other places, you know, so sometime’s it’s handy to have an alternative.
Straight 70% isopropanol is OK from a bacteria-killing front, but it’s very drying. If you apply it to your hands on a regular basis you are going to have cracked, chapped hands, which will increase your chances of infection. (I know this from personal experience because we use it around the lab to clean stuff. Gloves are your friend.)
So if you are not going to make a fancy homemade mix a la WhyNot, shell out for the Purell.
