A long time ago humans discovered that hygiene is one of the keys to good health. People started to realize that being clean usually meant not getting sick and it was observed that doctors had a much higher rate of patient deaths when they did not wash their hands. Since then we have progressed from the idea that bathing once a year is enough to the idea that bathing at least once a day is enough and there is not a limit on how many times we can wash our hands in a day. The more the better, seems to be the policy for hand washing especially in the field of healthcare. The only question now seems to be how we should wash our hands.

Our options for hand washing have gone from plain old soap and water to plain old soap and water, antimicrobial soap and water, or alcohol based hand sanitizer. These three options may seem to have pretty much the same results, but the effectiveness is actually quite different depending on which method you use to get your hands clean.

In terms of environmental impact it seems that the hand sanitizer would be the best option for hands that aren’t visibly dirty, but may need to be cleaned. Both soap and hand sanitizers require some movement and shipping and production electricity so they have basically an equal impact in that respect. Soaps and hand sanitizers also both use water in production, but with soap you have to use water while you’re actually washing your hands so when it comes to water usage, hand sanitizer is a better choice. When washing you hands with soap you usually have to dry them off after wards. Using paper towel is a waste of trees, and using hand towels requires more use of water for laundry. Hand sanitizers dry on your hands while you’re using them. When it comes to environmental issues it seems that using hand sanitizer when you can is a more beneficial choice for sustainability.

When it comes to personal health there are two things to consider about hand sanitizers vs. soaps. First, alcohol based sanitizers kill 9% more bacteria than antimicrobial soaps and an even higher percentage more than regular soaps. Public schools who use hand sanitizers instead of regular hand washing have reported almost 20% less absences due to infection and illness. Hand sanitizers act faster, kill more germs and viruses, and are all together more effective than washing with soap and water. The second health consideration is that there is a potential health risk that comes with hand sanitizer if you have small children. There have been more than 12 000 cases in the United States alone of small children ingesting alcohol based sanitizers and getting very ill. As long as it is kept out of children’s reaches and monitored when used by children there should be no reason to worry and it can in fact reduce the chances of your child getting ill.

The impact on skin while washing your hands can be fairly negative. Using soap and water frequently often dries out the skin and reduces epidermal water content much more than using hand sanitizers. This is because hand sanitizers often have moisturizes in them as well to prevent you hands from drying out. You could also use moisturizers after hand washing to escape dry and damaged skin. With alcohol based sanitizers make sure to avoid any broken skin or abrasions as this often causes stinging.

Hand washing is a serious business. Making sure your hands are clean and germ free could be the difference between illness and health for you and your family so doing it right is very important. Using alcohol based hand sanitizer instead of soap and water whenever possibly could greatly reduce your water usage and your chances of catching those nasty winter bugs. The best part is that you can carry your hand sanitizer with you places that the sink just can’t go which means clean hands all the time. Just make sure to store and dispose of it properly and always keep it away from heat and open flame.