Hand sanitizer is a liquid, gel, or foam rubbed on the hands to kill disease-causing germs. People often use hand sanitizer as an alternative to hand washing when soap and water are unavailable. In most cases, using hand sanitizer also takes less time than hand washing. Hand sanitizers contain alcohol as their active ingredient. Alcohol molecules break open the cell walls of bacteria and denature (damage) germ proteins. Hand sanitizers must be at least 60 percent alcohol to be effective.
Hand sanitizer may not remove certain kinds of germs, including the infection-causing bacteria Clostridium difficil . It might not remove harmful chemicals from the hands. It also might not work when the hands are visibly dirty. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people wash their hands with soap and water whenever possible, outside of healthcare settings. But hand sanitizers remain an important hygiene tool for hospital workers and for people without access to soap and water.
The German company Hartmann first marketed alcohol-based hand sanitizer to hospitals in 1965. In 1988, the American company GOJO developed a hand sanitizer later named Purell. The company began selling Purell for home use in 1997. In 2002, the CDC determined that alcohol-based hand sanitizers are effective in killing disease-causing organisms.
