Hand Sanitizer
Not many people are going to find this entry interesting. Honestly, I'm writing it here so Trevor will read it and we can be on the same page about it without wasting time having a conversation about it. This is what it has come to!
Anyways, for a while, I didn't really understand the "danger" of hand sanitizer. I was getting little hints from here and there that it was "toxic." But then I would say to myself, seriously...toxic?!? Are people really saying that? I mean, what do they mean by "toxic." It's essentially alcohol. I have a bottle of rubbing alcohol in my bathroom. Is that toxic? And there is such a craze going on right now about natural products and exposure to harmful chemicals. Is alcohol a harmful chemical? Everything is a chemical. Who is to say what is harmful and what is not? Baking soda is a chemical. Is hand sanitizer a victim of the all-natural craze?
Finally I found an article that made sense to me. I found it on CNN's Dr Gupta's blog.
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.gupta/2007/06/hand-sanitizer-on-rocks-please.html
Basically, he says that it is more of a poison than a toxic chemical. If ingested, it can cause harm. A drop of the stuff is equivalent to a sip of an alcoholic drink, which is not nothing if a little kids is the one ingesting it. Surprisingly, this put me at ease. Because I couldn't find an article explaining the "dangers" I thought it was a chemical exposure issue. It made me worry that I was contributing to my kids possibly getting cancer or something. Still, it's nothing to brush off. Little baby kids can easily down a little bottle if a parent turns away for a little while. Neither of my kids are in that stage, so I can relax. But it is certainly something I want to keep in mind.
What was even more interesting to me were some of the comments! Here are the ones from which I actually learned something:
When my children were young, I was a fanatic trying to childproof my home. I found the childproof cabinet locks were very useful. I remember one time I gave a dose of prescription cough syrup to my son, then ran to my baby daughter's room because she was crying. When I came back, my sone had downed the whole bottle! My pediatrician told me to give him syrup of Ipecac which I kept handy for just such an occasion.
We must be vigilent with our children. Mistakes, accidents, and tragedy can happen in the blink of an eye.
As a microbiologist, I am concerned about people's perceptions of what these sanitizers can and cannot do. These alcohol-based sanitizers will kill most bacteria and some viruses (those with membranes), but they do not kill bacterial or fungal spores or viruses that lack membranes (which include many cold viruses and viruses that cause gastrointestinal diseases, especially in children). Sanitizers don't remove dirt or other contaminants, and so I find it very strange that my local gas stations have sanitizer dispensers next to the pumps - santizier won't remove the residual gasoline from one's hands, and I'm far more worried about the long-term effects of gasoline than about the few microbes that might have been on the pump handle. Also, the high amount of alcohol can dry out the skin to the point where fine cracks in the skin are actually more prone to infection than the skin was prior to sanitizer use. In the end, hand sanitizers are a poor substitute for soap and water.
So, based on this reading, I am going to continue to use hand sanitizer without worry. I never used it at home where soap and water are available and that will continue to be the case. When I am around babies, I will be very careful to not let them ingest it. That is all.
Anyways, for a while, I didn't really understand the "danger" of hand sanitizer. I was getting little hints from here and there that it was "toxic." But then I would say to myself, seriously...toxic?!? Are people really saying that? I mean, what do they mean by "toxic." It's essentially alcohol. I have a bottle of rubbing alcohol in my bathroom. Is that toxic? And there is such a craze going on right now about natural products and exposure to harmful chemicals. Is alcohol a harmful chemical? Everything is a chemical. Who is to say what is harmful and what is not? Baking soda is a chemical. Is hand sanitizer a victim of the all-natural craze?
Finally I found an article that made sense to me. I found it on CNN's Dr Gupta's blog.
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.gupta/2007/06/hand-sanitizer-on-rocks-please.html
Basically, he says that it is more of a poison than a toxic chemical. If ingested, it can cause harm. A drop of the stuff is equivalent to a sip of an alcoholic drink, which is not nothing if a little kids is the one ingesting it. Surprisingly, this put me at ease. Because I couldn't find an article explaining the "dangers" I thought it was a chemical exposure issue. It made me worry that I was contributing to my kids possibly getting cancer or something. Still, it's nothing to brush off. Little baby kids can easily down a little bottle if a parent turns away for a little while. Neither of my kids are in that stage, so I can relax. But it is certainly something I want to keep in mind.
What was even more interesting to me were some of the comments! Here are the ones from which I actually learned something:
When my children were young, I was a fanatic trying to childproof my home. I found the childproof cabinet locks were very useful. I remember one time I gave a dose of prescription cough syrup to my son, then ran to my baby daughter's room because she was crying. When I came back, my sone had downed the whole bottle! My pediatrician told me to give him syrup of Ipecac which I kept handy for just such an occasion.
We must be vigilent with our children. Mistakes, accidents, and tragedy can happen in the blink of an eye.
As a microbiologist, I am concerned about people's perceptions of what these sanitizers can and cannot do. These alcohol-based sanitizers will kill most bacteria and some viruses (those with membranes), but they do not kill bacterial or fungal spores or viruses that lack membranes (which include many cold viruses and viruses that cause gastrointestinal diseases, especially in children). Sanitizers don't remove dirt or other contaminants, and so I find it very strange that my local gas stations have sanitizer dispensers next to the pumps - santizier won't remove the residual gasoline from one's hands, and I'm far more worried about the long-term effects of gasoline than about the few microbes that might have been on the pump handle. Also, the high amount of alcohol can dry out the skin to the point where fine cracks in the skin are actually more prone to infection than the skin was prior to sanitizer use. In the end, hand sanitizers are a poor substitute for soap and water.
So, based on this reading, I am going to continue to use hand sanitizer without worry. I never used it at home where soap and water are available and that will continue to be the case. When I am around babies, I will be very careful to not let them ingest it. That is all.
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