What hand sanitizers do we carry?

Hand sanitizers are a fantastic option when regular soap and water are not within reach. Miniature and convenient, hand sanitizer can be used in any situation. Hand sanitizers are used to reduce and even get rid of harmful germs and bacteria, reducing your chances of getting sick. Hand sanitizer consists of an alcohol-based formula that helps eliminates germs.  Advocating good and regular hand washing routine is crucial in reducing your chances of getting ill. By forming a consistent cleaning and washing of your hands, you can bring the chance of the transmitting of a microbe to low. This automatically translates to keeping you and everyone around you safe.

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Dr. Andrew Alexis, MD, chair of Mount Sinai's department of dermatology affirmed that Hand sanitizer is a fine way to decontaminate when there is no easy access to soap and water but he warned that it must be used appropriately; do not forget to take a look at the expiry date and ensure it contains the correct ingredients.  He reiterated that alcohol-based sanitizers with sixty percent alcohol or more are finest for eliminating numerous types of germs. If your bottle of sanitizer contains any less, it might lower the growth of germs but not eliminate them. The CDC attests that high alcohol content (also at least 60 percent) is needed to eliminate germs.

According to Alexis, when procuring a hand sanitizer, the first thing to check for is one of these three main active elements on the label namely: benzalkonium chloride, isopropyl alcohol, or ethyl alcohol.  These elements all show that the content contains alcohol, and as long as it is up to the required t 60 percent mark, you are protected.  Stay off-hand sanitizers that contain other probably hazardous types of alcohol.

In the early part of 2020, as the break-out of the new coronavirus, began to escalate, the sales of hand sanitizer began to grow. By 11^th March, the World Health Organization officially elevated the break out to a global pandemic. Health facilities began to give guidance about the washing of hands after touching public surfaces like door handles and abstinence from face touching.

Most health workers affirm that soap and water is the finest way to keep your hands free from all forms of germs, but when you are not within the reach of a handwashing station, hand sanitizers are the next best thing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that to get the paramount advantage from hand sanitizer that people should make use of a product that contains at least 60% alcohol; cover the surfaces of their hands evenly with the product, and rub them together until dry.

Doctors have always linked good hand hygiene with a perfect state of well-being. Oliver Wendell Holmes, American medical reformer and the Hungarian “Savior of Mothers,” Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, both linked poor hand hygiene with high rates of postpartum infections in the 1840s,  which was nearly twenty years before the well-known French biologist Louis Pasteur printed his first germ theory discoveries. In 1966, Lupe Hernandez while still, a nursing student franchised an alcohol-containing, gel-based hand sanitizer for hospitals.  The firm Gojo, in 1988, launched Purell, the first alcohol-containing gel sanitizer for consumers.

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Although some hand sanitizers are sold without alcohol; the alcohol content is the main ingredient in most products recently being bought off the store shelves. This is so because alcohol is very distinctive in decontaminating and that is also mild on your skin.  The functionality of the alcohol content in hand sanitizers is to break up the outer coverings of viruses and bacteria.

The new Coronavirus is also known as an enveloped virus. Some viruses safeguard themselves with only a confine made of proteins; however as enveloped viruses leave the cells they have infected, the viruses fold themselves in a covering made up of some of the cells’ fatty-based walls along with some of their proteins. According to Pall Thordarson of the University of New South Wales, the fatty bilayers that surround encased viruses like SARS-CoV-2 are held together by a  blend of hydrophobic and hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions.  Thordarson further affirmed that, like the lipids shielding these micro-organisms, alcohols have a polar and a non-polar region, so, what these ethanol and other alcohols do is derange these supra-molecular interactions, successfully by melting the lipid membranes. However, he went on to say that there is a need for a reasonable high concentration of alcohol to quickly break apart the organisms’ defensive coating which is the reason the CDC advises on the use of hand sanitizers with at least 60% alcohol.

However, rubbing high concentrations of alcohol on the skin is not pleasant; what it does is that it can quickly dry out your skin as it will also derange the defensive layer of oils on your skin; that is the reason hand sanitizers contain a moisturizer to restrain this drying effect. The WHO provides two simple compounds for making hand-sanitizing liquids in places that are remote and resource-limited where workers do not have access to sinks or other hand-cleaning amenities. One of these compounds uses 80% ethanol, and the second, 75% isopropyl alcohol, also known as rubbing alcohol. Both procedures contain a minute amount of hydrogen peroxide to avert microbes from growing in the sanitizer and a small amount of glycerol to assist in keeping the skin moist and also avert dermatitis. Other moisturizing solutions you might find in liquid hand sanitizers include propylene glycol, and poly (ethylene glycol). When an alcohol-based hand sanitizer is rubbed into the skin, its ethanol evaporates, leaving behind these comforting compounds.

In clinics, very fluid hand sanitizers like those you can make from the WHO formulas are easily transferred to the hands of doctors, patients, and visitors from the dispenser mounted on the wall; however, for consumers, hand sanitizer gels are a lot easier to take and apportion because it is easier to squeeze a gel from the bottle without spilling issues. Gels also reduce the evaporation of alcohol, making sure it has covered your hands and works against the microbes that might be present.

Individuals that have attempted home-made gel-based hand sanitizers can inform you that classic gelling agents like gelatin will not behave when blended in with the high concentrates of alcohol that is required to eliminate bacteria and viruses. These agents will not form a gel that is stable because polar alcohol groups intersperse the intermolecular bonds. Producers sort out this difficulty by using ‘high-molecular-weight cross-linked polymers of acrylic acid’. The intra-molecular force cross-links help make a thick gel that is immune to alcohol’s disruption.

Although numerous hand sanitizers contain either isopropyl alcohol or ethyl alcohol, alcohol-free hand sanitizers are also on sale. They oftentimes contain antimicrobial elements like benzalkonium chloride that offer a lasting defense against bacteria. However, alcohol-free hand sanitizers are not endorsed by the CDC for combating the new Coronavirus, because it is not yet found that it can be used effectively against SARS-CoV-2.

According to Rachel McCloy, an expert in behavioral science at the University of Reading, panic buying permits individuals to reclaim a sense of control; because when individuals are in a state of fear, it is oftentimes difficult to make logical decisions equivalent to the risks. She went on to advise that it is crucial to pay attention to public health professionals on the constructive actions that you can take, but the best option remains the washing of hands.

Thordarson emphasized the fact that soap and water are still the best choices for hand health. Soap atoms not only derange non-covalent interactivity that holds bacterial and viral cell walls together but can also encircle and help remove microbes from the skin. Hand sanitizers cannot remove some microbes from the skin and are not functional against all germs. For instance, noroviruses do not have a lipid covering that can be broken up by alcohol, and the spores of Clostridium have a hard overlay of keratin that can shield them for years. Alcohol also does not work successfully when hands are greasy or visibly dirty. Thordarson concluded that though alcohol-based hand sanitizers work, he maintained that soap remains the finest and most successful choice.

Below is a list of a few good hand sanitizers:

72hours

Hand Sanitizer ranging between $4.99 and $149.99

Rocky Mountain Soap Co.                                              

Nomad Hand Sanitizer, $18, rockymountainsoap.com.  

Dillon’s      

Alcohol Antiseptic 80% $23, well.ca.                           

Province Apothecary

Fresh Gel Hand Antiseptic Hand Cleanser, $16, provinceapothecary.com.

Nala                         

Hand Sanitizer, $13, nalacare.com.                                                                          

Bleu Lavande

Hand Sanitizer Spray, $5, shoppersdrugmart.ca.

Green Beaver

Antiseptic Hand Sanitizer Spray, $8, greenbeaver.com.

Nudestix

Nude skin Antibacterial Hand Gel Keychain Pouches, $10 for 5, sephora.com.

Frank and Oak x Cosmétiques France Laure

Hydro-Alcoholic Protective Gel, $16 for 3, frankandoak.com.

Etiket

Multipurpose Sanitizer, $9 for 2 oz, etiket.ca.