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Almost every chemical factory which had license to Ethanol where I live started making hand sanitizers to meet/exploit the demand last year. Most of them where
by Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
Almost every chemical factory which had license to Ethanol where I live started making hand sanitizers to meet/exploit the demand last year. Most of them where just white-labeled and so I wouldn't be surprised if there was other harmful substances in it.
Doctors here advise to use soap over hand sanitizers if there's water available. But now there's another problem, all these obsessive hand wash with soap is making the skin dry[1] and causing other skin problems.
[1] https://needgap.com/problems/198-hand-wash-liquid-which-doesnt-make-the-skin-dry-skincare-hygiene https://needgap.com/problems/198-hand-wash-liquid-which-does... (Disclaimer: It's a problem validation platform I built).
- webkike 6y agoCold water is just as effective as hot water for washing and will prevent your hands from drying out as easily
- stochastician 6y agoI desperately hope this is the case, but a quick google couldn't find a link. Do you happen to have a citation that you'd recommend? I say this as someone who is a bit paranoid about hand cleanliness _and_ is very tired of cracked skin.
- adkadskhj 6y agoI too am a curious dry-skin person. I thought i had read something to the affect of the interaction between soaps and bacteria worked better in warm water than cold. I'll be really interested if i can avoid warm water.
- igneo676 6y agohttps://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article/80/6/1022/200017/Quantifying-the-Effects-of-Water-Temperature-Soap https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article/80/6/1022/200017... Beyond the citation though, it makes logical sense. The mechanism for sanitation is that the soap itself destroys the bacteria. This mechanism works regardless of temperature. Cold water + Soap should be just fine as long as your hands are otherwise visibly clean. In the food industry, we were required to use high temperature water. This was presumably to remove actual surface contaminants (dirt, grease, other food contaminants) rather than for actual sanitation. That's why you might still see guidelines for using hotter water temperatures.
- vkou 6y agoDoes soap actively destroy bacteria, or does it mostly wash the oils off your hands, that bacteria are stuck to/are covered by, and send them down the drain? I've always been taught it's the latter. Soaping your hands, and not rinsing will not sanitize them, you'll just end up with dirty, soapy hands.
- clairity 6y agomost bacteria have an outer lipid layer that is clung to by the hydrophobic end of soaps and pulled apart by the hydrophilic forces clinging to water on the other end.
- lazide 6y agoAdditionally, the soap itself is binding to oils (which often frees up dirt if it was trapping in or under an oily layer, which being hydrophobic will stop water from washing the dirt off). Soap itself doesn’t do a whole lot against dirt.
- tasogare 6y agoIt’s bit ridiculous to ask for a citation for something as simple as washing hands. You could try for yourself during a week and see if it change something.
- mattkrause 6y agoJust to play along here....how do you propose that they check whether the cold water removes bacteria more effectively?
- Zircom 6y agoThey were referring to difference between hot vs cold water and it drying out your skin, not the effectiveness of cold vs hot water at sanitizing.
- mattkrause 6y agoI read the "paranoia about cleanliness" bit as suggesting both.
- e12e 6y ago> I desperately hope this is the case, but a quick google couldn't find a link. Do you happen to have a citation that you'd recommend? Cdc agrees: https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/faqs.html https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/faqs.html > Is it better to use warm water or cold water? > Use your preferred water temperature – cold or warm – to wash your hands. Warm and cold water remove the same number of germs from your hands. The water helps create soap lather that removes germs from your skin when you wash your hands. Water itself does not usually kill germs; to kill germs, water would need to be hot enough to scald your hands. Soap helps break down/encapsulate/dissolve oils/fat that aren't readily soluble in just water.
- lazide 6y agoWhich, that breakdown and encapsulation happens faster at higher temperatures - it’s a pretty predictable chemical process. At scalding hot or higher temps, the surfactants can sometimes break down or form weird side products though.
- e12e 6y agoIt does happen faster at higher temperatures, but apparently not so much that it makes a difference in terms of cleaning your hands. I'm a bit surprised by that, but that's what studies seem to imply.
- lazide 6y agoDo you have a link to the studies? I definitely notice a huge difference in washing with soap in cold water (camping), which is hard to not leave a film, and warm water which does a pretty effective job quite quickly with the same exact soap.
- e12e 6y agoI didn't encounter any good primary sources, but a few references that seemed to indicate no difference in bacteria reduction between warm/cold water for washing hands. It may be that cold water is simply good enough.
- ajmurmann 6y agohttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1471-5740.2002.00043.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1471-5740... via http://foodsafetytalk.com/food-safety-talk/2012/6/25/food-safety-talk-20-im-not-worried-about-eating-my-own-poop.html http://foodsafetytalk.com/food-safety-talk/2012/6/25/food-sa...
- Scoundreller 6y agoIs it? I thought micelles formation improved as temperature went up. Also depends on how cold your cold water is... ours is under 10C. Probably unnecessary to do a perfect job for an unstable respiratory virus. Skin-colonizing bacteria is a different story.
- cultofmetatron 6y agouse doctor bronners. works extremely well and they don't remove the glycerin so it won't dry out your hands.
- deeblering4 6y agoUsing bar soap has stopped the issue for me, and it's also been much cheaper and more readily available (in stock) than liquid soaps.
- clairity 6y agoyes, not only cheaper but you get more cleaning power per ounce, since you're not paying for the added water.
- mrob 6y agoAnecdotally, I increased hand washing at the start of the pandemic using liquid handwash (containing sodium laureth sulfate), and it caused skin irritation. I switched to plain bar soap (sodium palmate and sodium palm kernelate), which did not.
- analog31 6y agoOddly enough, my family went the other way. If you live in a hard water area, soap causes soap scum. I banned it from the showers because I was sick of scrubbing out the scum. And it has become impossible to find detergent based bar soap, I think because there's a glut of tallow and lard. So we use liquid body wash now.
- yosito 6y agoWhile hand washing is one factor that can cause dry skin, another factor that contributes is ambient humidity. I started keeping my living space between 40 and 50 percent relative humidity, and the dry skin on my hands from frequently washing them went away. Keeping your living environment properly humidified also keeps other parts of your body like mucous membranes hydrated which helps prevent disease, so it's really a win-win.
- jbotz 6y agoYour skin "dries out" because soap removes the natural oils of your skin. The solution is to replace the oils. Coconut oil or olive oil are good choices. A few drops on your still-wet hands, then spread it around by rubbing your hands together; your skin being slightly wet helps spread the oil evenly. The oil will be completely absorbed within a few minutes, so don't worry about having oily hands.
- jfim 6y agoAlternatively, one can have a bottle of hand lotion by the sink. Wash the hands with soap, dry them with a towel, add hand lotion.