Using hand sanitizers and cleaning with soap and water are two entirely different processes, ideally used in conjunction with - not instead of - each other. Think of it like cleaning and disinfecting your kitchen bench. You wipe it down first, right? Otherwise you're just disinfecting the dirt that's on the bench, not the bench itself.

The Food and Drug Administration in the USA and the Department of Health and Aging in Australia both recommend washing your hands with soap and water in every case where there is obvious soiling of your hands and whenever practical in all situations. Hand sanitizers are beneficial for use after you've blown your nose or coughed, maybe changed a not too messy diaper etc. Hand sanitizers kill certain germs and bacteria by a disinfectant action or by removing surface oil. They do not clean. They also don't easily get under your finger nails, the most common area for harboring germs.

Effective hand sanitizers use either Ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol or isopropanol) at a solution of at least 60% or Benzalkonium Chloride as their active ingredients. Every other ingredient in the product is there for cosmetic reasons or to create a gel or foam carrier. Both types of sanitizers work by stripping surface oils from your hands.

Ethanol can be very drying on your hands, is highly flammable, can be harmful if swallowed, can cause nasty eye irritations and prolonged use can cause dermatitis and other skin conditions. Benzalkonium Chloride in concentrate is corrosive, toxic and can cause harm if inhaled. However as it's usually used at a solution of 0.13% the risks are considered inconsequential. Benzalkonium Chloride however can be inactivated by soap, so be aware that this can have an effect on its usefulness.

Interestingly, commercial hand sanitizers are almost always backed by the claim that they kill 99.9% of germs. A natural, but perhaps false, assumption is that they will do this effectively on our hands. A report on www.biology.about.com dated 24 February, 2000, states that the manufacturers tests are done on inanimate surfaces as the complexities of the human hand would make testing far too difficult. The author suggests that if tests were done on human hands the results would be very different. Remember my statement about cleaning under the nails above?

In support of hand sanitizers, a report tabled by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and published in September, 2004, states:
"...Families that used hand sanitizer had a 59 percent reduction in the spread of gastrointestinal illnesses in the home compared with those who did not use hand sanitizer.
Hand sanitizer likely reduces the spread of colds and respiratory illnesses as well, investigators say.
Soap and water are necessary to remove dirt from skin."

This study was based on a group of 292 families, 155 of which were provided with samples of hand sanitizer and instructions, 137 were provided with nutritional information only! I'll leave it to you to analyze the figures.

References:

www.townsville.qld.gov.au
http://www.sansmart.co.nz/prod ucts.htm#handhygiene
http://biology.about.com/libra ry/weekly/aa022400a.htm
http://www.news-medical.net/?i d=5188
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B enzalkonium_chloride
http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/ BE/benzalkonium_chloride.html

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