
In this age, everyone is familiar with handwashing and sanitizing techniques to mitigate the spread of infections. You most likely use an alcohol-based detergent, particularly hand sanitizer, to reduce and kill microorganisms, bacteria, and viruses on your hands.
However, you may lack sufficient information on the suitable ingredients and the ideal alcohol level to enhance protection against high-risk infection issues. Luckily, you found this post that explains seven essential things you should know before purchasing a hand sanitizer.
But even before, let’s understand how hand sanitizers work! Primarily, the detergent features antiseptics, effectively preventing the growth and killing of existing microorganisms. Even so, use hand sanitizer alongside handwashing best practices for excellent results.
Now, let’s discover what you must know before purchasing hand sanitizers!
1. Kill Germs, Not Cleaning Hands
When cleaning your hands, use soap and running water to control infections. But to kill germs, you need hand sanitizer. Typically, the effectiveness of soap and water aligns with the handwashing process. When scrubbing and rubbing your fingers and palms, friction is created, loosening the germs on the skin while breaking the structure of bacteria. And upon rinsing your hands, you again wash the bacteria down the drain.
On the other hand, hand sanitizers effectively kill most of the germs on the skin. A distinction, however, is norovirus, cryptosporidium, which causes diarrhea.
Furthermore, hand sanitizers remove harmful chemicals like lead stains and pesticides, all sensitive to the skin. Nonetheless, for a hand sanitizer to function well, have clean and grease-free hands.
Even still, all hand sanitizers are different in killing germs efficacy depending on the alcohol level, which is recommended to be at least 70% isopropanol and 60% alcohol.
2. Costs are Distinct
Understanding that hand sanitizer costs differ is crucial before purchasing one. This will allow you to budget for an ideal product without compromising quality, ingredients, and functionality. Still, it helps to ensure that a particular brand does not exploit you.At the core, the price of a sanitizer depends on:
- Quantity and size
- Ingredients and formulation
- Brand reputation
- Added features like moisturizing effects
- Packaging
- Manufacturing cost
- Marketing and distribution costs
- Eco-friendliness
- Demand
3. Legitimacy and Traceability
This can’t be stressed enough! It is paramount to know the nature of the hand sanitizer and where it’s coming from. As the demand for hand sanitizer continues to rise, there may be increased cases of scalpers intending to sell unstandardized sanitizer to ignorant buyers.
For this reason, avoid sanitizers without labels and guided instructions. Also, check on the facility making it to ensure its compliance with standards and procedures. Besides, buy a product with the Safety Data Sheet, SDS, to understand its making process, effects, warnings, and precautions.
4. Moisturizing Effects
Frequent use of hand sanitizers can strip your skin of its natural oils, leading to irritation and dryness. To combat this, choose sanitizers that include moisturizing ingredients like aloe vera, glycerin, or vitamin E. These additives can help keep your hands clean and soft, even with regular use.
5. Beware of Your Skin
Besides the extensive market of sanitizers, it’s vital to understand that not all can suit your skin. Of course, you don’t want to kill germs while provoking your skin health at the same time. Some sanitizers can cause inflammation and increase sensitivity to UV light.
The cases are true for people with skin problems and those who’ve never experienced a challenge with their skin. As such, be cautious about your skin and purchase a hand sanitizer.
6. Product Packaging
Checking for the packaging is mostly important because of the tendency of hand sanitizer brands to package their products similarly to beverage and food brands. Often, children can mistake them for drinks and ingest them. For instance, many sanitizers are stored in plastic bottles with top lids resembling kid’s drink bottles.
Still, for the sake of the environment, purchase a hand sanitizer with recycled packaging.
7. Check the Ingredients
As a rule, avoid hand sanitizers with unknown substances and toxic ingredients. Some ingredients, such as Chlorine, parabens, EDTA, and sulfates, are universally harmful to the human skin, while others could be allergic on a personal level. A common problem with such sanitizers is irritation, which can translate to more serious problems if you use them for a long time.
Therefore, always check the ingredients in a hand sanitizer before purchasing one for excellent results.If you’re unsure of the suitable ingredients, consult your supplier or check online for the ‘questionable ingredients’ often used to make hand sanitizer. Better still, purchase sanitizers with food-grade ingredients, such as isopropyl and ethyl alcohol. This is especially true for the safety of the elderly, pets, and children and overall peace of mind.
Conclusion
Since their introduction, hand sanitizers have proven effective detergents against various hygiene and communicable-related infections. Even so, you’ll get excellent results only after using them correctly and following safety practices. Also, the kind of sanitizer you use determines its usefulness in the hands and overall body. The best thing, with the above information, buying sanitizer, whether online or in-person, can’t be a challenge anymore.