Autobiography of a sanitizer
Answers
Panic buying over the coronavirus pandemic has led to a variety of household products flying off the shelves at your local grocery store.
That includes staples, like bread and toilet paper, as well as one product that's only been commercially available for a few decades, but which many people clearly now view as a necessity: hand sanitizer.
Purchases of the disinfecting gel have skyrocketed in the U.S. ever since the first case of COVID-19 hit the country. During the last week of February, a period that saw the first American death from COVID-19, hand sanitizer sales in the U.S. were up by 300% compared to the same week a year earlier, according to market research from Nielsen.
The following week, the first week of March, hand sanitizer sales shot up by 470% compared to the same week a year earlier, Nielsen tells CNBC Make It. That's in an industry that already sees more than $200 million in annual sales of hand sanitizer products in the U.S., according to Nielsen.
Supermarkets and pharmacies across the country have sold out of hand sanitizer, leaving only empty shelves where disinfectant products would normally be found.
With some consumers even hoarding hand sanitizer amid the shortage, online prices for the products soared, leading law enforcement officials in many states to threaten prosecution for price-gouging against third-party sellers on sites like Walmart and Amazon (where an 8-ounce bottle of Purell that would normally cost $2.50 was briefly on sale for $90 before being removed by Amazon in early March).
What's more, the run on hand sanitizer also came as health officials across the country have remained adamant that the best way for people to combat the spread of potentially dangerous germs is simply through diligent hand-washing with soap and water. (For what it's worth, the U.S. soap industry is worth more than $2 billion per year. Sales of hand soap in the U.S. have jumped by "double-digit" percentage points during the coronavirus pandemic, but nowhere near the increase of hand sanitizer sales, according to Nielsen's research.)
So, what's all the fuss about?
The history of hand sanitizer
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do note that, when it comes to preventing the spread of coronavirus, "if soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol."
And indeed, that is the primary ingredient in hand sanitizer: alcohol. Most hand sanitizers contain anywhere from 60% to 95% isopropyl or ethyl alcohol mixed with water and gels like glycol and glycerin in order to prevent drying out users' skin. The resulting product is typicall sold in a hand gel or liquid spray under brand names such as Purell or GermX.
But while alcohol has been in use as an antiseptic since the late-1800s least, the exact origins of hand sanitizer are up for debate.
One version of the story points to Lupe Hernandez, a nursing student in Bakersfield, California in 1966, as the inventor of hand sanitizer after combining alcohol and gel for use by doctors in situations where they don't have time to access soap and warm water before treating patients.
However, a recent investigation by the Smithsonian Institution historian Joyce Bedi was unable to turn up any trace of Hernandez, or any evidence of a U.S. patent for hand sanitizer under that name from the 1960s.
There's also Sterillium, which the German company Hartmann claims was "the world's first marketable alcohol-based hand disinfectant" when it hit European shelves in 1965. It's made with glycerin and 75% alcohol.
Still, others trace modern hand sanitizer back to Goldie and Jerry Lippman, the married couple that developed a waterless hand cleaner in 1946 for rubber plant workers who previously used harsh chemicals like kerosene and benzene to remove graphite and carbon black from their hands at the end of their shifts. The product, which they called Gojo (a portmanteau of their names) is a mix of petroleum jelly, mineral oil and less than 5% alcohol that's still used today by auto mechanics and other workers to clean off substances like grease and oil.
The Lippman's mixed their first batches of Gojo in a washing machine in the basement of Goldie's parents' Akron, Ohio home, where the couple was living at the time, according to The New Yorker. They put the resulting product in pickle jars and sold it out of the trunk of their car.
Over the ensuing decades, Gojo continued selling their products as industrial cleaners. Then, in 1988, the company invented the hand gel Purell, which consists of 70% ethyl alcohol as its primary ingredient, along with propylene glycol. While Purell is now the world's best-selling hand sanitizer, it took some time for stores to carry the product that most everyday customers weren't really asking for. As such, Gojo did not release Purell onto the consumer market until 1997.
Answer:
Hand sanitizer, also called hand antiseptic, handrub, or hand rub, agent applied to the hands for the purpose of removing common pathogens (disease-causing organisms).1,2 Hand sanitizers typically come in foam, gel, or liquid form.1,3 Their use is recommended when soap and water are not available for hand washing or when repeated hand washing compromises the natural skin barrier (e.g., causing scaling or fissures to develop in the skin).2,3,4 Although the effectiveness of hand sanitizer is variable, it is employed as a simple means of infection control in a wide variety of settings, from day-care centres and schools to hospitals and health care clinics and from supermarkets to cruise ships.1,5
A person using gel hand sanitizer.
Hand sanitizer
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Types Of Hand Sanitizers
Depending on the active ingredient used, hand sanitizers can be classified as one of two types: alcohol-based or alcohol-free. Alcohol-based products typically contain between 60 and 95 percent alcohol, usually in the form of ethanol, isopropanol, or n-propanol.1,6 At those concentrations, alcohol immediately denatures proteins, effectively neutralizing certain types of microorganisms.2,4,6 Alcohol-free products are generally based on disinfectants, such as benzalkonium chloride (BAC), or on antimicrobial agents, such as triclosan.1,6,7 The activity of disinfectants and antimicrobial agents is both immediate and persistent.1,3,8 Many hand sanitizers also contain emollients (e.g., glycerin) that soothe the skin, thickening agents, and fragrance.1,3
foam hand sanitizer
foam hand sanitizer
A person using foam hand sanitizer.
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Effectiveness
The effectiveness of hand sanitizer depends on multiple factors, including the manner in which the product is applied (e.g., quantity used, duration of exposure, frequency of use) and whether the specific infectious agents present on the person’s hands are susceptible to the active ingredient in the product.1,3,5 In general, alcohol-based hand sanitizers, if rubbed thoroughly over finger and hand surfaces for a period of 30 seconds, followed by complete air-drying, can effectively reduce populations of bacteria, fungi, and some enveloped viruses (e.g., influenza A viruses).1,6,9 Similar effects have been reported for certain alcohol-free formulations, such as SAB (surfactant, allantoin, and BAC) hand sanitizer.1,3,8 Most hand sanitizers, however, are relatively ineffective against bacterial spores, nonenveloped viruses (e.g., norovirus), and encysted parasites (e.g., Giardia). They also do not fully cleanse or sanitize the skin when hands are noticeably soiled prior to application.1,2
Despite the variability in effectiveness, hand sanitizers can help control the transmission of infectious diseases, especially in settings where compliance with hand washing is poor. For example, among children in elementary schools, the incorporation of either an alcohol-based or an alcohol-free hand sanitizer into classroom hand-hygiene programs has been associated with reductions in absenteeism related to infectious illness.10,11 Likewise, in the workplace, the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer has been associated with reductions in illness episodes and sick days.12 In hospitals and health care clinics, increased access to alcohol-based hand sanitizer has been linked to overall improvements in hand hygiene.13,14