How to properly use hand sanitiser

The NHS have risen a campaign about the proper way to wash your hands, the World Health Organisation have also given the public the right information in order to curb the spread of coronavirus and reduce the exposure to dangerous germs.

With alcohol-based hand sanitisers being the go-to recommendation from health organisations across the globe, news has emerged that there is a right way and a wrong way of applying it and it could make all the difference to keeping yourself and others healthy.

There’s two important stages:

Clean

This describes the process of washing your hands with soap and water. This will lift oils holding microbes from your hands and clean from any residing dirt.

Disinfect 

This stage is the most important. After cleaning it’s important then to disinfect your hands to ensure no nasty germs are lingering.

You’ll want to use a hand sanitiser for this, as high-alcohol content hand rubs like alcohol hand sanitisers can destroy germs and kill any trace of the virus within 30 seconds.

The right technique to use hand sanitiser

First, make sure all rings and jewellery have been removed from your hands. If possible, try to wash the dirt from your hands that could have been left by the jewellery.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have published the following three step guide to apply hand sanitiser correctly:

1. Place a sufficient amount (the label will tell you how much you need) of the product into the palm of one of your hands.
2. Then, rub your hands together similar to how the NHS has described to wash hands
3. Continue to rub the gel over the surface of your hands until dry. This can take up to 20 seconds to complete.
4. When rubbing in the gel, make sure to clean fingers, nails, back of the hand and fingertips. Also don’t forget to rub the hand sanitiser towards each wrist.

The perfect time to use hand sanitiser

You’ll want to use hand sanitiser religiously throughout the day to help reduce the threat of catching the coronavirus or spreading germs to others.

The most crucial times to use a hand sanitiser is when you’re out and about and on the go, like when you’re using public transport.

But after new research emerged about coronavirus surviving on surfaces, steel and cardboard for up to 72 hours has caused people to panic about their home being infected.

It is therefore now important to continue to use hand sanitiser at home, after taking in packages or groceries, putting them away or touching shoes, before and after eating.

Which type of hand sanitiser is the best?

Hand rubs that do not include alcohol will not be very effective at killing active microbes and germs off of your hands.

It is best therefore to use products that contain 60-95% alcohol.

Buy alcohol hand sanitiser here.