Many people consider rubbing their hands with Purell or an equivalent hand sanitizer to be the same as washing their hands. But is this really true, or do all of us germ phobia really get our hands dirty?

Hand sanitizers are mostly made up of ethanol, an alcohol commonly used to clean lab tables and keep things sterile while conducting delicate experiments. It is this high alcohol content that ensures 99.9% of the common disease-causing bacteria are removed from your hands.

Your hands are an important part of staying clean because they regularly come into contact with most of the known disease portals in your body – this includes the mouth, nose, and the conjunctiva (or corners) of the eyes. The Centers for Disease Control recommends that you wash your hands regularly with soap and water, but when you’re on the go and those things aren’t available, consider hand sanitizers your best bet. Soap and water remove dirt and kill germs, while hand sanitizers can only kill germs.

Both methods eliminate some of the safe resident germs as well as eliminate dangerous disease-causing germs. This is not bad for your health, as bacteria multiply rapidly and will replace what is gone in the blink of an eye. There is no data to support the conclusion that the use of antibacterial hand sanitizers is unhealthy or causes illness.

The most important factor in cleaning your hands has more to do with the time you spend doing it than with the material you use. Washing your hands for a few seconds (the way most people wash their hands when in the bathroom) is largely ineffective. Studies show that this brief hand washing will only kill a very small and negligible amount of germs, making it essentially useless. If you don’t have time to wash your hands more thoroughly, use a hand sanitizer; it is more effective than a short wash. However, a hand wash longer than 30 seconds will kill more germs than a quick sanitizer or hand sanitizer.

When is it important to wash your hands? After using the toilet, of course, but also before eating or drinking, before and after handling raw meat, poultry or eggs, after spending time in a public place or on public transport, and when you are sick. Follow the rules of the cleaning method that is most effective for your time frame and you should be safe and avoid passing harmful germs to others.

If we told you all the places where you could catch disease-causing germs, you may never leave your home. Instead, remember to wash your hands thoroughly after being in a public place or before eating anything. Follow these simple rules and you will be safe from most of the bacteria that could make you sick. And if you’re on the go, don’t forget your sanitizer!

For more information on how to keep your environment clean and germ-free, visit our Denver cleaning service website and click to access the blog.