If hand sanitizer kills 99.9% of germs, what stops us from using that all of the time instead of hand washing?
In: Biology
I can hardly believe no one has addressed the cost difference between soap and water vs alcohol. Beyond costs of production, there is an enormous difference is the number of cleanings one gets out of soap vs alcohol. Logistical and storage costs etc.
Cost differences between the two materials are the main driver in soaps popularity.
Excuse germs mutate, and eventually can grow an immunity to such things. It’s best to use sparingly for this reason.
Hand sanitizer contains chemicals that are toxic to many plants and animals. We don’t want to be putting a lot of it down our drains where it goes into the oceans and hurts wildlife. In nature we need bacteria so we don’t want a lot of this in nature.
We also need bacteria on our skin. The sanitizer kills all bacteria allowing the harmful to thrive. Keeping a good balance on the skin is important.
If I accidentally get dogshit on my hand, I don’t want to just have sanitized dogshit on my hand. I want soap and water to wash it away.
There’s more dogshit out in the world than we want to know about.
Killing is not the same as removing. Also oils and dirt aren’t living. All that crap just stays on your hands.
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