What reason would people be against hand sanitiser?

[ImbarbaraB]

I’ve noticed now that there’s a parent of a child in my sons nursery who doesn’t let the teacher use sanitiser.

I also have another friend who refuses to use it when going into shops and won’t let her child wear it.

Does anyone know why you wouldn’t use it?

I absolutely hate the gel stuff and carry a bottle of my own spray and use that, not liberally though as much prefer to wash hands with a bar of soap and water.

It's not recommended for young children according to our nurseries guidelines.
Some children may also have eczema or allergies.

I stopped the school giving it to dd7, at the start of the pandemic as her hands were red raw and cracking at the creases. I myself don’t use it upon entry to shops etc. Hot soapy water does an adequate job!

Eczema?

Makes your hands sticky.
Hurts like the Dickens if you’ve got a cut.
Killing all germs so our children aren’t catching colds etc and building natural immunity.
Don’t use it.

I've stopped using it because it made my eczema flare up. If I use it now, it burns and stings.

My asthma is triggered by strong smells and many shop ones reek... so I use my own or don't bother. As several pp have said above, we know now that covid is primarily and airborne disease. Hand sanitiser is unlikely to help.

I prefer just to wash with soap and water. I do carry a bottle for when I am traveling, but that’s more against other nasties, not COVID.

I have eczema on my hands (not caused by sanitiser) which means that using alcohol hand rub is ridiculously painful for me. So I avoid it wherever I can and wash with special soap & water when I'm at home.

I'm not "opposed" to hand sanitizer.
But my 6yr old dd has very dry, sensitive skin/excma on her hands, it's a particular problem in the winter due to the cold.

This autumn, winter and spring was awful - her skin reacted really badly to the extra handwashing in school (cheap soap!) and the frequent hand gel. I don't object to the need to wash hands, but we ended up sending in her own soap from home which helped the problem a little.

Her hands were not just dry and cracked, the backs were red raw and constantly bleeding from many nasty cracks. At one point there were more cuts and sores than there was skin! They never had a chance to heal, and applying hand sanitizer to open wounds is very very painful!
So we decided that where possible, she was to avoid sanitizer. And when it was necessary (eg, wraparound childcare policy was that it HAD to be used on arrival) we told her to apply it to palms only - not the back of her hands.

[quote Pissinthepottyplease]@Heyha the WHO advice is for health care workers when in contact with patients and is not meant for the general public to follow.[/quote]
But they wouldn't advocate it if it were contributing to antibiotic resistance would they?

Antibacterial isn't the same as antibiotic.

@DinosaurDiana

Allergies ? I won’t use other people’s, such as in shops, if I’ve got to touch the bottle or pump. I only use the foot activated or automatic ones.

Surely it doesn't matter given that you are sanitising your hands immediately?

@ShinyGreenElephant

My ex believes that it is toxic and gets into your bloodstream and makes you ill. He also believes that forehead thermometers collect information about your brain though

Well they would struggle a bit with him then won't they? Honestly some of the crap some people have come out with this past year really boggles my head.

It's paper cut finder alcohol gel. I make my own so it's just pure alcohol, doesn't seem to dry hands out so much.

I also absolutely agree that proper handwashing is much better but hand san has always been a convenient alternative when hand washing wasn't easily available (emergency side of the road nappy changes, that kind of thing). I totally get objections to using it, and it's not compulsory (or shouldn't be) anyway so I don't think anybody should be judged either way, same as once masks aren't compulsory nobody should be worried about doing what works best for them.

@bumblingbovine49

Antibacterial ones are contributing to complete antibiotic resistance which will make Covid look like a walk In the park

They, along with the constant washing triggered eczema on my hands in the spring 2020 and I'm still having trouble controlling the subsequent flare ups

exactly this!!! we should be promoting effective hand washing , anti-biotic resistant superbugs are a far greater threat to human life going forwards ,we forget how many people died on a regular basis from simple infections before antibiotics were invented.

We all have choices to make. I wash my hands thoroughly and use my own gel which suits my hands, I’m a nurse so I use the stuff at work but in my time I use my own and look after my hands. My youngest son has eczema and it sets his hands off terribly. I sent in his own soap and gel to school and that did help but his hands were red sore and bleeding and that’s not hygienic anymore than not washing them. Poor thing was in pain.

As others have said it could be allergies, dryness or eczema, or some other reason like autism and an aversion to the smell or stickiness of it.

It also really stings if you have any kind of small cut or graze on your hand, and a young child might not be able to cope with that.

I would use it if going through a hospital/doctors surgery.

I don't use it at the entrance to every shop. That seems overkill if I'm going into several shops. It doesn't feel nice on your hands and if you lick them /eat with your hands I worry about what I'm ingesting! I wouldn't put it on DS 3 for this reason.

I would use it if it's been a while since I could wash my hands.

www.cdc.gov/handwashing/faqs.html

It's very simplistic (germs 🙄) but explains how the mechanism for killing bacteria is totally different for hand san and antibiotics, quite near the bottom, for anyone curious.

I still can't get my wedding and engagement rings back as I've developed some kind of dermatitis from using so much of the stuff at the very start. Soap and water followed by cream for me.

@Heyha that report is about preventing hospital/healthcare-acquired infections ie. staff transmitting infections between patients,some of whom may be already immuno-compromised and have difficulty fighting off infection. Hand gels are not a replacement for effective handwashing. if you have contact dermatitis or any form of skin problem you have to be extremely careful of overusing alcohol gels or other products that worsen skin condition and create breaches ,people forget our skin is a defensive wall and part of our immune system.

It’s a poor alternative to washing your hands. I always prefer to wash my hands properly with soap and water.

Sanitiser makes my hands dry. Some of them make my hands itchy. Some of them make my hands sticky. I hate the smell of all of them and recently they seem to have got even worse. If you’re eating something like a sandwich, you can taste it from your hands. Sanitiser should be used when there aren’t facilities to wash your hands, not as the default.

@Heyha there are some studies published in the past couple of years that show certain bacteria are becoming more tolerant of the alcohol...bacteria, like viruses, are continually evolving and as we overuse one thing sooner or later they will find a way around it. In fact some studies have shown that the increased use of hand sanitiser in hospitals has coincided with an increase in certain types of hospital acquired infection...as a busy nurse it is far quicker to take a squirt of handgel between patients rather than go through the handwashing protocol that we are all taught. As we disrupt the natural balance of bacteria either on our hands or just as importantly in our guts it allows for proliferation of other bacteria that are not part of our own evolved system and are not beneficial to us.

@ShinyGreenElephant

My ex believes that it is toxic and gets into your bloodstream and makes you ill. He also believes that forehead thermometers collect information about your brain though

Those thermometers must be good if they can find his at all.

Eczema , I had a flare up of pompolyx and couldn't use it for a while