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Are hand sanitizing lotions as effective as hand washing?

In a word, No. However there is always more to the story.

Hand sanitizers are very effective at reducing the likelihood of contracting some of the very common conditions such as the flu or common cold. One great use for these products is at large gatherings of people such as conventions. Hand-shaking and touching common use items such as telephones, computers or even door knobs are all high risk activities during cold and flu season, so any action that reduces the numbers of pathogens on the hands is likely to reduce the chance of infection.

In human hospitals, hand sanitizers are an integral part of an overall infection control program, but they are only useful as an INTERIM step in the process. Such as immediately following a minor patient-contact procedure where a handwashing sink is not available. For a truly effective program, that interim step must be followed up with a through water and soap handwashing.

Although there are other ingredients in most commercial hand sanitizers, the main ingredient is usually alcohol. And since repeated use of alcohol on living tissues dessicates or dries out the skin, prolonged use of alcohol based sanitizers has the potential of damaging the body’s main protection against disease.

Hand sanitizers are not very effective at removing physical matter and unless the “dirt” is physically removed from the hands first, the alcohol or other chemical ingredients of the sanitizer can’t come in contact with the pathogens and can’t kill them. If there is any dirt or macroscopic material present, the sanitizer’s effectiveness is very limited.

And since they do not remove any material already on the hands, hand sanitizers are totally ineffective at cleansing the hands after contact with non-organic materials, such as drugs or chemicals. Drug and chemical residues must be removed with a thorough hand washing using soap and water.

Then there’s the concern with overuse of anitmocrobial substances and how that may contribute to more drug-resistant organisms. Although there is really no conclusive proof one way or the other on this issue, the prevailing wisdom is to limit use of antimicrobial substances when physical cleaning can accomplish the same objective.

Overall, the chemical hand sanitizers are very good at what they do. They reduce bacterial counts of transient organisms, so they are a useful tool in the fight against disease transmission, but they should not be substituted for a thorough hand washing with soap and water when facilities are available.  Click here for more information on hand washing in the veterinary practice.

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The information on these pages is excerpted from
The Complete Veterinary Practice Regulatory Compliance Manual (5th Edition)
Copyright 2003 Philip J. Seibert, Jr., CVT  All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced for distribution without prior permission from the publisher.