Have people gone "sanitizer" crazy?

I don’t use hand sanitizers. Call me Old Fashioned! I like soap and water. In the absence of soap and water, I just take care not to put my hands on my face. I wash my hands frequently. I think putting something like sanitzer on my hands and leaving it there is gross.

I have asked a question on Fluther about a year ago, something like “do you think our society is too obsessed with germs and anti-bacterials.” Someone else asked a similar question about a few months ago.

I’m confident that they do work; after all they use them in hospitals. Most procedures in hospitals are not random and are backed up by research papers here and there.

The concentration of alcohol in the sanitizer is the important thing. It takes at least a 60% concentration to be really effective. Some sanitizers contain as little as 33%. This information is listed in the fine print on the bottle.

I just use soap. ;)

@genkan yes but some times people in hospitals just do stuff becasue people expect them to do it not because there is any actuall benefit to the patient.

Yes!—but it’s the sanitizer companies that are really cleaning up.

I don’t use sanitizers often; if I’m near a sink I prefer to use soap. I do have a couple of small travel-sized bottles, but I don’t usually carry them with me. I think the main reason I prefer not to use them is that I have very dry skin, and the alcohol just dries it out more.

I think people are relying too heavily on sanitizers, personally. After the breakout of SARS a few years ago and then H1N1, there are sanitizer stations all over the place in Toronto – all over campus, in malls, etc. I’ve always been of the opinion that it’s better to build up a resistance to some germs than to just sanitize constantly.

It’s rarely necessary to worry about bacteria.

And antibacterial products and over-use of antibiotic drugs have caused serious problems by creating “super-bugs”, resistant to antibiotics.

By unnecessary constant use of antibacterials and antibiotics, we wipe out normal, treatable bacteria, leaving only resistant strains to grow and prosper. So when you actually do need to keep bacteria at bay (you are in the hospital and vulnerable to infection), antibiotics can be useless.

”Nasty Superbugs – Tips to avoid antibiotic-resistant infections
Use antibacterial products sparingly: Antibacterial soaps and cleaning products probably don’t prevent infections at home and may make these products less effective in hospitals.”
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2008-mchi/4875.html

”Antibacterial Household Products: Cause for Concern
…after years of overuse and misuse of these drugs, bacteria have developed antibiotic resistance, which has become a global health crisis (1, 2). The relatively recent increase of surface antibacterial agents or biocides into healthy households may contribute to the resistance problem…”
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no3_supp/levy.htm

@jaytkay Resistance is a problem with lots of the antibacterial agents used in soaps, but there doesn’t appear to be any evidence so far of resistance to alcohol in bacteria. That would be an argument in favor of using sanitizers over anti-bacterial soaps.

@thorninmud Thank you for the correction about alcohol, I did not realize that.

Considering the places they go and the people that may contact, using a hand sanitizer seems to be a completely rational choice for a police officer. The same would apply to teachers because kids are little germ factories.

I would be surprised if there were police officers that didn’t use gloves and sanitizers.

The most important criteria for product selection, I guess, would be germ killing ability and if it irritated your skin after multiple uses. Additionally, I would guess that locally made products would be safer and better than ones made in foreign countries because product defects can be quickly reported and resolved. Manufacturers are very sensitive to their customers when complaints immediately affect their bottom line.

@thorninmud there are chlorine resistant bacteria so I doubt it’s going to be long before there are alcohol resitant ones.

I don’t consider hand sanitizer a substitute for washing your hands with soap and water. I still do that plenty. But I do keep hand sanitizer around for when washing your hands with soap and water is either inconvenient or not necessary.

Here is an except from a great article on the subject by the University of Florida with input from CDC.

“Hand washing guidelines for health care workers should not be confused with recommendations for food workers or the general public. For everyone, washing hands with soap and water is sufficient and is still a must. For the general public at home, plain soap and water is adequate for most consumer uses. Dr. Elaine Larson recommends taking the extra precaution of using an alcohol gel or antibacterial soap only in situations such as

1. coming in close physical contact with persons at high risk for infection (such as newborns, the very old, or immunosuppressed);

2. having direct physical contact with someone with an upper respiratory infection, skin infection or diarrhea; and

3. working in settings where infectious diseases are commonly transmitted, such as food preparation, and/or crowded living areas (child-care centers, preschools, prisons, or chronic-care residences).”

So, if you are shaking hands with someone who is infected use the sanitizer . It will only give you protection for 2 minutes but those 120 seconds might be the difference between catching the cold or not.

I use warm water and dirt.

lol @Cruiser if you did you’d probably do better than the people who are germaphobes

@tranquilsea those few germs are what have given me an iron-sides immune system!!

@Cruiser me too!

Soap and water for me. I’ve only used hand sanitizer once, and that was to get permanent marker off of a dry erase board. (It was in another teacher’s classroom…ooops!) It worked.