Should You Use Hand Sanitizer

You might have come across hand sanitizers and seen people using them, and often wondered whether it was using a hand sanitizer yourself. So, should you use a hand sanitizer?

What is a hand sanitizer?

Hand sanitizer was developed to help people clean their hands more effectively and kill germs. They can be used directly after washing your hands (which is always an effective way to clean your hands) or more often when you do not have access to hand soap and warm water to clean your hands.

One common misconception about hand sanitizer is that it can replace cleaning your hands with soap and water. The use of hand sanitizer is meant to be combined with proper handwashing. This is because hand sanitizer is not designed to clean your hands of dirt or grime, instead you’re going to need soap for that. Always wash your hands when you can, and when it is not possible to do so, such as when in transit, then reach for the hand sanitizer.

So to answer the question whether you should use a hand sanitizer, this is most certainly a “yes” if you want to ensure that your hands are as germ free as they can be. Potentially you may be able to skip the hand sanitizer while at home, but if you go outdoors with crowds and groups of people, for example the office, railway stations, airports and malls then you might want to keep a portable travel hand sanitizer close by so that when you touch things that other people have been in contact with, you can give your hands a quick “cleaning up” with the sanitizer. Because a hand sanitizer doesn’t require soap, water or a towel to dry it, you can apply the hand sanitizer quickly, which ensures that you are less exposed to germs.

What Sort Of Hand Sanitizer Should You Use

We’ve established that it can be a good idea to regularly use a hand sanitizer to ensure that you have clean hands and for good hand hygiene. The next question we’re often asked is if all hand sanitizers are the same, and whether they all work identically. The answer to this is that there are a wide range of different hand sanitizers available, and these different brands can differ in their overall effectiveness. In simple terms it is possible to split hand sanitizers into two distinct categories, those that contain alcohol, and those that are alcohol-free and are normally marketed as utilizing ‘natural’ ingredients. The hand sanitizers that contain ethyl alcohol (generally over 60 percent alcohol) are the best at sanitizing your hands and killing germs. The alcohol content is important because when you use a hand sanitizer that contains alcohol, you can kill bacteria and viruses such as the common cold. In fact the sanitizer from Doctors Kline + Green can kill 99.9% of all the different types of germs that you might encounter. Non-alcohol based hand sanitizers are less effective at killing germs.

Find out more about the antibacterial hand sanitizer pen from Doctors Kline + Green.