Antiibacterial Hand Gel - are they good enough?

moneyunwise

Boots has a good explanation on its web site about whether hand gel meets CDC recommendations. I actually found it under a Cutacura product. It reads:

The alcohol content in Cuticura is measured by weight (w/w) at 57.6%, as printed on our packs. This converts to 66% by volume (v/v) and is therefore above the minimum recommendation level of The Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organisation.
The ethanol concentration in hand gel is usually expressed as a percentage, which can be measured in two ways - by weight (w/w) or by volume (v/v). The Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organisation alcohol content recommendation of 60% is based on the volume measurement (v/v).

Boots sell a hand gel but I cannot work out if it meets the recommended levels. Does anyone know?
https://www.boots.com/boots-antibacterial-cleansing-hand-gel-150ml-10249745

Semple

It says it's made up of 70% Ethanol, so my interpretation would be that would meet CDC/WHO's minimum guidelines.

Will be interested to see what others think.

moneyunwise

Semple said:

It says it's made up of 70% Ethanol, so my interpretation would be that would meet CDC/WHO's minimum guidelines.

Will be interested to see what others think.

I saw the percentage but the explanation given by Cuticura showed that there's different ways of interpreting it and I noticed on the Boots site that different products have different amounts of data. I guess Boots only write what they are told. Just 70% seemed quite high for an own brand product when they could "get away" with a lower amount and therefore be cheaper to produce - that was what made me query it.

jjames1985

The Cuticura "explanation" isn't about killing viruses, it's about killing bacteria (it is an antibacterial hand sanitizer after all.)  It isn't going to be effective against viruses, at least according to the experts.
The Boots stuff does meet the 70% requirements and is fine.

moneyunwise

jjames1985 said:

The Cuticura "explanation" isn't about killing viruses, it's about killing bacteria (it is an antibacterial hand sanitizer after all.)  It isn't going to be effective against viruses, at least according to the experts.
The Boots stuff does meet the 70% requirements and is fine.

that is why they mention these gels not being a cure for Covid so people aren't tempted to ignore the other advice and think this will be all we need.

[Deleted User]

jjames1985 said:

The Cuticura "explanation" isn't about killing viruses, it's about killing bacteria (it is an antibacterial hand sanitizer after all.)  It isn't going to be effective against viruses, at least according to the experts.
The Boots stuff does meet the 70% requirements and is fine.

Alcohol is an effective sanitiser against viruses on surfaces (which include hands), especially coronaviruses which have a lipid envelope which is destroyed by high strength alcohol. The "experts" all point out that alcohol hand sanitiser is effective against nearly all viruses, but especially against coronavirus and other lipid encapsulated viruses. 

jjames1985

MadMattUK said:

jjames1985 said:

The Cuticura "explanation" isn't about killing viruses, it's about killing bacteria (it is an antibacterial hand sanitizer after all.)  It isn't going to be effective against viruses, at least according to the experts.
The Boots stuff does meet the 70% requirements and is fine.

Alcohol is an effective sanitiser against viruses on surfaces (which include hands), especially coronaviruses which have a lipid envelope which is destroyed by high strength alcohol. The "experts" all point out that alcohol hand sanitiser is effective against nearly all viruses, but especially against coronavirus and other lipid encapsulated viruses. 

There are specific minimum levels of alcohol required to be effective, which different if it is ethanol or isopropanol...  since today is apparently "let's be pedants day."

[Deleted User]

jjames1985 said:

There are specific minimum levels of alcohol required to be effective, which different if it is ethanol or isopropanol...  since today is apparently "let's be pedants day."

Which is why I said "high strength alcohol". It is hardly being pedantic to point out that your statement "It isn't going to be effective against viruses" is factually incorrect.