Washing your hands WITHOUT water...

Pulsedriver

Pulsedriver

Pulsedriver

Soldato
Joined
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Hey folks!

So most of you would probably know, you can buy those hand sanitizers that you put a bit in your hands, then rub them til dry. Supposed to kill 99.9% of all bacteria etc!

They use it in Hospitals etc!

As I cycle to work, when I park up my bike I just spray a bit of purell a couple of times and rub it into my hands and away to work I go.


Is that the same as cleaning my hands? As in, can I still eat stuff etc!?

My hands still smelt of rubber from the handles I noticed! Even though i'd used that stuff.
 
All that stuff do is kill bacteria/germs, it doesn't clean. As long as you haven't been using hazardous material you can eat.
 
We use them all the time here at work, and they are great things...they do kill all the stuff built up on your hands that you wouldnt want to be there....but I mean dont take it to the toilet with you or anything to use instead of the water and soap
 
Ive never really put that much thought into keeping my hands clean like that. I would assume what your doing is spot on though, theres always gonna be the chance that you touch something dirty and dont know it.
 
SeanyK said:
As I cycle to work, when I park up my bike I just spray a bit of purell a couple of times and rub it into my hands and away to work I go.

My hands still smelt of rubber from the handles I noticed! Even though i'd used that stuff.
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I licked melted chocolate off my grips the other day, be a man and stop worrying about if your hands are clean :rolleyes:
 
SherberT* said:
Clean freak tbh. Do you wash your hand after touching everything? Bet your immune system sucks.
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Not my fault really though is it? Just the way I think of things I cant help it.

Im not overly bad, but im more a clean freak than a lot of people.


Ingredients:

Active ingredient: Ethyl Alcohol 62%

Inactive ingredients: Water (Aqua), Glycerin, Isopropyl Myristate, Propylene Glycol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Aminomethyl Propanol, Carbomer, Fragrance (Parfum)
 
I don't mind germs. It's dust and grease I hate on my hands. Get some soap and water. Forget the germs they're good for you.
 
When I was a kid, I used to bite my nails like mad, often after being outside etc etc

One time, I did, after having my hand in gravel from a car park, and was ill for a week.

Since then, it has made me paranoid, and I think thats where the whole ocd hand washing has come in!
 
A family member of mine has basically ruined their life through OCD hand washing.

They wash their hands every 30 minutes or so and spend around 3 hours daily in the shower (in total) they get through 3 bars of soap a week in the house.

The skin on their hands and arms is cracked and dry and always looks very painful, everything is kept on paper in the house so that it doesnt get "dirty"

Being clean is one thing, but dont let it take over your life :)

With re: to the alcohol stuff, i got through a tub of it at Glastonbury, really good stuff when water isnt available.
 
Im quite a mix of ocd and not ocd.

If you imagine, i'd wash my hands after opening a box for a delivery for example.

However, i'd then put my mouth to the packaging of plastic to open it etc! So it kinda defeats the object sometimes!
 
All i would suggest is just keep things in perspective. It has recently been proven that people with extreme OCD like my family member, actually have "infinate loops" in their neuron patterns! The problem (and good thing!) with Neurons it seems is that the more you do something the stronger those pathways get... so wash your hands a lot and it slowly gets more and more impulsive until you end up doing it every few minutes...

From my experience all i would suggest is when you go to wash your hands think "why am i doing this" if you can come up with a reasonable explanation then your probably doing it for a good reason, if however you are doing it because you have just picked up YOUR car keys (or even someone elses) then maybe time to re-evaluate.

For the record, this family members problems definately stemmed from being well into his records and later on cd's, he couldnt STAND to see greasy fingerprint marks (i.e. the skins natural oils) and so would wash his hands a lot. He then began work in a strange environment where he repaired hearing aids and all the horrible ear gunk etc mixed with quite a few collegues getting ill sorta pushed him over the edge. Hes getting better VERY sowly though :)
 
im a tad bit of a clean freak, when its a hot day and my hands are clammy and im using the computer/mouse its anoying and i got wash my hands every hour
 
SeanyK said:
Not my fault really though is it? Just the way I think of things I cant help it.

Im not overly bad, but im more a clean freak than a lot of people.


Ingredients:

Active ingredient: Ethyl Alcohol 62%

Inactive ingredients: Water (Aqua), Glycerin, Isopropyl Myristate, Propylene Glycol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Aminomethyl Propanol, Carbomer, Fragrance (Parfum)
Click to expand...



So basically, it's ethanol. The rest of the stuff is just there to stop the ethanol from evaporating too quickly and to make it smell nice.


No, it won't clean your hands that effectively. It will also dry out your skin quite badly (ethanol is a mild astringent I believe).


M
 
It's for killing bacteria and viruses more than for cleaning stuff off your hands, but you can use it for getting stuff off your hands if you wipe with something like a towel before the alcohol evaporates.

They use it in hospital to reduce transmission of infections from patient to patient via a person's hands. It isn't the same as washing your hands. It's better for killing infectious agents, but it's worse for general washing. So, for example, you will still have traces of rubber on your hands from your bike's handles.

I use it at work for dealing with the numerous customers who cough over everything and everyone and don't give a damn. I'd rather tell them what filth-spreading monkeys they are, but that wouldn't be good for my job. So I smile at them and wipe down where they coughed on me or touched me after they've gone. Animals.
 
I used the alcohol gel a lot when my dad was in hospital (they were very strict about it - MRSA, C. diff, etc) and it's horrible stuff. It made my hands feel dry and 'chalky'. I wouldn't use it out of choice.

It's healthy to encounter germs - it builds your immunity to them. There's such a thing as being too clean IMO.

Plain old soap and water is fine :).
 
I wouldn't swap it for soap and water, before lunch i'd still wash my hands with soap and water.

It's just for the purpose of when i've rode my bike to work, parked up, and am about to walk into the office to use my computer... So I just thought I could spray that on, and that would save washing my hands again...?
 
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