Hand Sanitizers...Do They Really Work?

This one is nice, from the "Mayo Clinic" and it's for doctors and nurses:

http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com...1/109.full.pdf

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy732

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/health/21cons.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC534108/

(Check the references list at the bottom of this one for a bunch of useful sources on this topic)

This one basically summarizes things Dan and I have already stated:
http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com...anitizer.aspx#

Grab a drink and a snack before settling in for this one....or, better yet, save it for the office, lol.
http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/P...05950/fulltext

LOL..y'all funny! and THANKS!

Wait, doesn't soap strip the oil off your hands too?

When I was a mechanic, soap was a life saver for removing spilled oil and for cleaning hands. We never used that frilly sissy hand sanitizer stuff

But that's a great article Deb, I read it a while back and it has helped wean my dependancy off of hand sanitizer. I wash with soap before handling, and then use HS in between handling and then touching my pen or logbook, or messing with the scale. Followed by a thorough wash afterwards. Something about hand sanitizer just doesn't feel right compared to soap, like I'm pushing around sanitized debri or

Originally Posted by Focal X

Wait, doesn't soap strip the oil off your hands too?

When I was a mechanic, soap was a life saver for removing spilled oil and for cleaning hands. We never used that frilly sissy hand sanitizer stuff

But that's a great article Deb, I read it a while back and it has helped wean my dependancy off of hand sanitizer. I wash with soap before handling, and then use HS in between handling and then touching my pen or logbook, or messing with the scale. Followed by a thorough wash afterwards. Something about hand sanitizer just doesn't feel right compared to soap, like I'm pushing around sanitized debri or

Yes, soap does strip the oil from your hands, the difference is, it's not claiming to be sanitizing. It's removing everything and it's all washed away..not moved around on the hands.

Yep...soap and water and sanitizer..that works.

Most people's normal handwashing isn't as good as they think it is. For removing dirt, grease, or other visible soiling, it's great...but to provide protection against the transfer of microbes is a different story. The frequency of washes would inherently cut down on one's consistency.
If you've ever had your hands swabbed & cultured, and/or participated in studies (or demonstrations) of hand cleaning agents, this is old news.

I'm not out to convince anybody on one practice or the other....hand sanitizers are not the simple cure-all, kill-all that some people consider them; nor are they the best option for every situation. With realistic expectations and proper use, though, they are effective at what they are supposed to do.

Since the original premise seemed to center around their use at shows - short of keeping your hands in your pockets the whole time, hand sanitizers are probably the best option for reducing the transmission of microbes. Otherwise, you'd have to be running to the bathroom to wash every time you shook hands with a vendor or showgoer, every time you rested your hand on a table, every time you touched ANYTHING (hook, book, substrate package, cage furniture - anything that might have been touched by somebody that handled an animal). You would probably save money on purchases though...if you didn't get sick of the process and just go home, somebody would snatch up the perfect thing while you were in the bathroom. Whether a hand sanitizer would be of benefit to reduce mite transmission would depend on the amount of contact one had with the host animal (or the table). If they get on your clothes, a sanitizer isn't going to help. What would be of far more benefit would be if, instead of getting freaked out and talking crap about the vendor with one's friends, people would report mites to the show promoter or employees. Most shows now have some clause about the health of the animals; and, if vendors got shut down for having mites, it would send a pretty strong message and reduce the risk to all.