FDA Cracks Down on False Claims for Hand Sanitizers

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Hand sanitizers aren't a gimmick, people just don't understand what a "sanitizer" is. By definition, a "sanitizer" is a chemical that reduces the amount of potential pathogens on a surface to a safe level. It doesn't just take one germ to make you sick (it depends on the type, of course) but it can take up anywhere from 1 to several million bacteria to constitute an "infectious dose." Which is to say, enough bacteria to overwhelm your immune system and make you sick. You spend a remarkably large amount of time in contact with pathogens, your immune system handles them more often than not. The sanitizers in this sense are not meant to fully kill off and sterilize anything, they just reduce overall populations to safe levels so anything left over can be handled by your immune system. Similarly, hot water and soap are always a better option because the way soap works is by mechanically "scrubbing" transient bacteria off the skin. The soap's structure doesn't allow for bacteria to develop a resistance, it's a surfactant (essentially, these make things easier to wash off with water) so it will remove a good portion if not all of the bacteria which cause disease. People just need to be realistic, full sterility is not economical and in most cases isn't possible OR desirable. For this reason, people need to be aware of the limitations of these chemicals, in addition to washing hands properly. If you're not washing for at least 30 seconds and actually scrubbing the surface (not just tapping them together) then you're NOT removing enough bacteria to sanitize anything.

I always thought those hand sanitizers were a little silly--just another gimmick to sell something! Just wash your hands a few times per day as needed--especially before you eat--and try to keep your hands away from your mouth. You can't go wrong with this simple strategy! The sanitizers could actually do more harm than good because the folks using them might falsely and mistakenly think that they don't need to do anything else!

Most of them taste terrible anyway.