Applying Alcohol Gel The "Smart" Way

Everything You Need to Know About Applying Alcohol Gel

Keeping proper hand hygiene is one of the most important ways of keeping yourself safe during an ongoing pandemic. Applying alcohol gel hand sanitizer is no rocket science. But it has to be done in a proper manner to ensure clean hands. Keeping your hands clean is a prerequisite to not getting sick and spreading the germs to those around you. The key would be to apply an alcohol gel that contains at least 60% alcohol. Such alcohol gels are proven to be more effective in killing viruses and bacteria on your hands by denaturing the protective outer proteins of microbes and dissolving their membranes.

Benefits of Applying Alcohol Gel

Keeping your hands clean at all times is definitely the need of the hour. While washing hands with soap and water is considered as a primary method to clean hands, it may not always be possible. For instance, you boarded a bus and while boarding you touched a couple of things on the way. Being a public transport, the surfaces obviously must have been touched by several other people before you. Wouldn’t you want to immediately clean off you hands? Of course you will but, does washing hands with soap and water look like a feasible option right now? No. Which is when, alcohol gel comes in handy to keep your hands germ free. Besides being a more accessible option than soap and water, applying alcohol gels also has the following benefits:

·       Alcohol gels are convenient, portable and require less time than washing hands.

·       It is less irritating to skin that soap and water. Many alcohol gels come with moisturizing ingredients to keep your hands soft even after frequent usage of the product.

·       Alcohol gels are great to use in group settings like offices and classrooms. Not only are alcohol gels easy and fun to use, they do not promote anti-microbial resistance and massively reduce the bacterial count on hands. Just keep caution while keeping alcohol gels in classrooms, as ingestion of alcohol gels can prove to be life-threatening.

When to Use Alcohol Gel?

If your hands are visibly dirty or greasy, it is advisable to use soap and water to wash them clean. Also, do not use alcohol gels while working with fire. So, make sure to wash your hands instead of applying alcohol gel while working in kitchen. Apart from this, you can apply alcohol gel:

·       Before you eat something.

·       Before and after caring or touching someone who is sick.

·       After cleaning a surface.

·       After touching something that you know is frequently touched by other people like door knobs, elevator buttons, railings, handles, counter surfaces, office stationary, etc.

·       Before touching your face.

·       When soap and water is not readily available.

Limitations of Applying Alcohol Gel

Even though alcohol gel comes in handy at most instances, there are a few things that should be kept in mind before using it.

·       Not all alcohol gel hand sanitizers are the same. They all have different ingredients, so you need to make sure you are well aware of this fact before buying an alcohol gel. You can check for ingredients like ethyl alcohol, ethanol or isopropanol because all of these are acceptable forms of alcohol. Also as mentioned above, make sure to buy an alcohol gel that has an alcohol concentration of at least 60%. An alcohol concentration of 60-95% makes the gel more effective.

·       Do not use alcohol gel on soiled hands i.e. when dirt and grim is visible to eyes. Alcohol does not cut through dirt, blood and soil. So, you can either wipe the dirt away or wash your hands before using a gel sanitizer.

·       Initially alcohol gels were used in hospitals as a complimentary habit to using soap and water. This explains that alcohol gel does not completely replace soap and water, rather it is more effective when used in conjunction with hand washing.

What is the Best Practice for Applying Alcohol Gel?

To make sure that you are applying alcohol gel in the most effective manner, follow the below mentioned steps:

1.       Make sure all organic matter, dirt and grim is removed from hands. Alcohol gel won’t solve the purpose when hands have visible dirt on them.

2.       Apply a dime sized amount of alcohol gel or an amount that is the size of your thumb nail on the palm of one hand.

3.       Rub hands together covering all surfaces of hands and fingers, including nails.

4.       Rub until alcohol gel is entirely absorbed. It may take the right amount of alcohol gel 15 seconds to completely evaporate.

Applying the alcohol gel without diligently rubbing the hands together will do not good. Just like washing hands, the gel should cover your entire hands’ surface. People most often tend to not sanitize the nails while applying alcohol gel. Nails may have germs on them, which can enter your mouth while you make or eat food. So, leaving nails out of the sanitization process might not be good idea. Other parts of your hand to carefully apply alcohol gel to is the mid of the fingers. If you wear any hand accessory, keep in mind to clean and sanitize them as well.

8 Surprising Uses of Alcohol Gel

·       Our phone screens touch our faces a lot of times during the day. Which is why, it is important to make sure that they are properly disinfected using an alcohol gel. Taken some on a cotton swab and brush it over the screen, sides and the pack of your phone.

·       Applying alcohol gel can also make your glasses shinier.

·       Alcohol gel can act as a life saver in situations where you want to remove permanent marker’s stain on whiteboards, clothing, and walls to erase its stain.

·       Even mirrors and windows can be cleaned (if you are falling short of a disinfecting spray).

·       Alcohol gel also relieves itching from a mosquito bite.

·       It is very important to disinfect your make up brushes because again, they come in contact with your face. Wash your brushes and then clean them using some alcohol gel.

 Alcohol gel has become more of a necessity nowadays. Considering how convenient and useful it is, alcohol gel is a must-have for everybody.