It Was Just a Fad

Hand sanitizer only last for two minutes, not effective at killing germs long-term

And we have these things up all over the campus.

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5 Responses to It Was Just a Fad

  1. Matt says:

    This shouldn’t surprise, should it? Most mostly work via alcohol, killing bacteria by breaking cell walls, and removing viruses via rapid evaporation (as alcohol does), but once it’s gone, it can’t do anything else, and you really don’t want a bunch of alcohol on your skin for a long period, as your skin will dry out soon, too. Given the way this stuff works, this is just what people should expect.

  2. Randy Paul says:

    If you rode the subway here in NYC regularly and had spent several minutes holding a pole, then sat down on a bench, you’d be grateful for the hand sanitizer – not withstand its ephemeral nature.

  3. csrster says:

    But they still use them in hospitals don’t they, so I assume they are actually effective to some degree.

  4. Matt says:

    so I assume they are actually effective to some degree.

    They are- if you don’t have a really cheap one, and you use the right amount in the right way, they kill (or remove via evaporation) the germs that are on your hands right now. What they don’t do is keep new germs from coming along later, but then, there was no rational reason to think they (or anything else) would.

  5. Kaleberg says:

    I just thought they were a way to quickly wash one’s hands without having a sink and soap handy. When I wash my hands, I assume that they are clean until I touch something dirty. Why should it be any different with an alcohol based hand cleaner?

    Surely no one thought that these things would imbue one’s hands with the magical power to kill germs for some period of time. That’s just ridiculous. How could anyone get that impression?

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