Hand sanitizers - do they really work?

In recent times, with Coronavirus and all of the surrounding publicity, we are in the midst of lots of advice and guidance about how to stay safe and how to keep the Covid-19 virus safely at bay.

Hand sanitizers have been around a very long time, and within hospital settings, we’re all used to using them as they are often at the entrance to wards and usually next to the main entrances of the hospital and have been a regular fixture there, long before coronavirus.

Hand sanitizers are actually nearly 100% effective in killing germs and bacterial and viral agents on the surface of the skin, so are highly useful in protecting people from the spread of the germs from surface contamination.

How do hand sanitizers work?

The answer to this lies in the formulation of the hand sanitizer itself. A good hand sanitiser with maximum efficacy contains active elements that kill the relatively delicate bacterial and viral agents on contact.

Hand sanitizers usually contain ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol or both to kill bacteria and viruses on the hands and arms or wherever applied. 

Alcohols are well-known known to kill germs by denaturing the protective outer proteins of microbes and then dissolving their membranes, rendering them harmless.

When should hand sanitizers be used?

Wherever there is the potential of surface contamination, or when hands can touch the face or other body parts, or when in the close physical proximity of others, are all scenarios where hand sanitizers can effectively eradicate the risk of cross-infection due to the killing of bacterial or viral particle as per the above.

Hand sanitizers are often best accompanied with other forms of protection and prevention of spread, such as by the utilisation of face masks or visors that augment the effectiveness of the hand sanitizer for more complete protection for the user, and for those in close contact. See more on PPE here

Many health professionals use hand sanitizers as a matter of course and they have been a long-term fixture in most doctor’s surgeries, on wards or in other clinical settings, where health professionals are consulting or examining patients and therefore putting themselves at potential risk.

What are the best hand sanitizers?

It is always best to use hand sanitizers that have been manufactured by well-known brands as you have the peace of mind that they have been tested and meet all legislative and quality standards.

It is also a good idea to check the ingredients of the hand sanitizer, as they can differ in terms of concentration and of active ingredients. Many hand sanitizers come with additional ingredients, such as moisturisers, to counter the potentially drying effect of the active ingredients of the hand sanitizer.

All Mobility Smart hand sanitizers have been developed by trusted suppliers and are of exceptionally high quality. We supply into the NHS and other reputable organisations who have robust quality control and service level agreements, which all our hand sanitizers have to satisfy.

Find out more about hand sanitizers…

If you would like to read up more on our range of hand sanitizers, take a look at our dedicated web page where you can read about individual brands and see what type of hand sanitizer would be best suited to your specific requirements, the page is here