Good hand hygiene is vital to tackling the spread of bacteria and viruses. This can include washing your hands with soap and water, antiseptic hand washes, antiseptic hand rubs such as alcohol-based hand sanitisers, foams, gels and wipes.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we all are now well-aware of hand hygiene, but some confusion still remains about what exactly works best when it comes to hand sanitiser products and why.
COVID-19 is an enveloped virus, which means that the RNA is packaged within an outer fatty or lipid membrane. Alcohol-based hand sanitiser products disrupt this lipid layer, stopping the virus being able to recognise and attach themselves to host cells. Alcohol concentrations of between 70% and 80% have been shown to deactivate viruses like COVID-19 within one minute exposure time.
Most alcohol-based hand sanitiser gels contain either ethanol, isopropanol or a combination of the two. You should check the product label to see how much alcohol it contains.
Antibacterial wipes will typically have less alcohol and more antibacterial compounds, water and wetting agents. Before buying antibacterial wipes, you should check the active ingredients listed on the packet. It's important that you use hand wipes with alcohol listed as the active ingredient.
Although hand sanitising products kill bacteria and viruses, they are only effective when used on clean hands. If your hands are dirty, the alcohol contained in the hand sanitiser products will not be able to successfully penetrate through to the skin and will not be able to effectively destroy the bacteria or virus.
The alcohol based hand sanitiser gel available at Work & Wear Direct in Southend comes in a liquid form that rapidly evaporates without leaving a residue or odour, whilst moisturising the skin leaving it feeling clean, soft and smooth. Our customers return to us again and again because they know that at Work & Wear Direct, they receive both high quality products and outstanding customer care, all at an amazingly low cost!
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