If hand sanitizer kills 99.9% of germs, what stops us from using that all of the time instead of hand washing?

Question

If hand sanitizer kills 99.9% of germs, what stops us from using that all of the time instead of hand washing?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Some good points, but I haven’t seen this one come up yet. It’s bad for your skin.

Your skin is *always* covered in germs and other microbes, which are beneficial (or ar least not bad) for you. In what ways our microbiome helps us exactly is still undergoing research, but at least they make it harder for “bad” germs to spread. Using hand sanitizer will kill them off, allowing nasty stuff to spread when you get in contact with it later.

Additionally, hand sanitizer is usually drying out the skin, causing tiny cracks, which potentially help bad germs to hide there or even get inside your body faster.

Only use it occasionally, for example when you are touching a wound. Otherwise soap is better.