No matter where you go, it’s almost impossible to avoid hand sanitizer. It’s outside school classrooms, in stores, and even in bathrooms, where research indicates that you should definitely spend the extra 30 seconds washing your hands. If you’ve been using hand sanitizer, there are many good reasons that you need to kick this habit.
What Hand Sanitizers Do
Hand sanitizer is a mixture that uses 60% alcohol to strip your hand of germs, remove excess moisture, and replace soap and hot water. When you scrub that liquid into your hands, it evaporates quickly, supposedly leaving your hands clean and free of bacteria.
Reasons to Stop Using Conventional Hand Sanitizers
Unfortunately, hand sanitizer isn’t the miracle solution that many believe it to be. If you commonly use hand sanitizer instead of soap and hot water, find out what hand sanitizer can do to your hands and why you need to make a switch:
- You may develop resistance to antibiotics. Many hand sanitizers use triclosan, an antibiotic that theoretically eradicates 99% of the bacteria living on your hands. However, bacteria are smart. When you use antibiotics when they’re not necessary, bacteria adapt and become stronger. When you actually need antibiotics, they may be ineffective.
- It may disrupt your hormonal levels. One of the biggest concerns of triclosan is what it can do to hormonal levels. Research indicates that triclosan disturbs hormone levels, particularly in children and young adults. This can have lifelong effects.
- Hand sanitizer can be dangerous to young children. Young children put everything in their mouths! A couple pumps of hand sanitizer is the equivalent of several shots of alcohol, so it’s easy for children or pets to accidentally get alcohol poisoning.
- Triclosan may negatively impact your immune system. Researchers look at hospitals, where hand sanitizers are often used because of their speed and convenience. However, those who regularly rely on sanitizer rather than soap have been found to be at higher risk for serious illness.
- You leave yourself open to germs and bacteria. The main component of hand sanitizer is alcohol. Regularly using this on your hands can be extremely drying. This may make the skin on your hands crack, giving bacteria a direct path to your body.
A Natural Solution
If you want to sanitize your hands on-the-go without having to resort to triclosan-laden mixtures, you can create your own hand sanitizer that uses healthy, safe ingredients. Get a four ounce spray bottle, fill it halfway with water, and add these ingredients:
- 30 drops of lemon, lime, lavender, or melaleuca oils; mix and match for a total of 30 drops
- 8 to 10 drops of vitamin E oil
- 2 teaspoons of aloe vera gel
Shake up, spray, and use. Because of the oil’s presence in this mixture, this sanitizer will leave your hands smooth and soft rather than dried out and cracked. The essential oils in the sanitizer can kill germs, protecting you just as well as more conventional mixtures.
Sources:
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/why-you-should-stop-using-hand-sanitizer-immediately
http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/02/homemade-hand-sanitizer-with-essential-oils.html
http://www.thestreet.com/story/12966410/1/5-hidden-dangers-of-hand-sanitizers.html
Nicole Penguin
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