We are a family of clean freaks. In our house, hands are washed before eating dinner, after eating dinner, before working on the computer, after touching dirty laundry, before handling food, after unloading groceries . . . and on and on and on.
We also love those handy waterless cleansers. Pumps can be found in the cars, in purses, in backpacks, and in pockets. Whenever we’re out and about, we use Purell and Germ-X religiously. On long marathon road-trips where even the handles in public restrooms are suspect, they have been the life-savers.
One day, though, the subtitle on one of the bottles caught my eye. “Kills 99.9% of bacteria.” Most common illnesses aren’t caused by bacteria, though, but by viruses.
A Great Debate began in our household over the waterless cleansers. Were they completely ineffective? Had we simply been imagining their cleansing powers? Or were they as effective as soap in warding off those creepy germs?
None of us bothered to research the answer. We simply added a disclaimer as the Purell made its way around the car. “Remember . . . this isn’t actually doing anything.” We like to cover our bases.
The recent onset of swine flu has brought questions about cleanliness and germs to the forefront of everyone’s minds. A cough or a sniffle in a public places now inspires looks of rage and panic. Teachers are carrying around bottles of Lysol. People are washing and disinfecting themselves and their children with a vengeance.
It would be nice to know if those waterless cleansers worked.
So, I spent some time this morning searching for an answer. This is what I found:
- The Center for Disease Control claims that alcohol-based cleansers work to prevent illness.
- Healthunit.com had a wonderful article that clarified most of my questions about waterless hand cleansers.
- WebMD performed a great study comparing the effectiveness of various cleansers.
The answer, it seems, lies partly in the alcohol. According to one article on Healthunit.com, “Alcohol kills bacteria and most viruses.”
So alcohol-based hand cleansers will protect users from common colds and other nasty germs. However, if the cleanser doesn’t contain at least 60% alcohol, then it may be ineffective.
Additionally, the article on WebMD noted that the most effective weapon against bacteria was a product called chlorhexadine gluconate (CHG). Benzethonium chloride worked most effectively against viruses. According to WebMD’s article, alchohol-based cleansers were less effective than CHG or the benzethonium choloride, though cleansers that contained ethyl alcohol still killed significant numbers of viruses.
We’re going to continue carrying those hand sanitizers around. Not that we had stopped.