Australia's Science Forum

Our preschool has recently purchased some new hand "sanitiser" as they are not allowed to have the ethanol based sanitiser. After looking at the website for Siqura I felt a little suspicious of their claims.

"Unlike traditional alcohol based hand sanitisers that only provide short term protection, the unique Fresche™ technology creates an invisible microscopic layer of protection on your skin which continually destroys bacteria for up to 24 hours*."

As we had some left over agar plates I decided to put it to the test.....

I guess the results speak for themselves and I certainly won't be rushing out to buy any of this stuff. How can companies make such claims!!!

Kathryn

'Cause people are gullible. I think we all have at least one friend who didn't do science at school and believes all they read on the internet.
The school nurse looked at buying something like this for our kindergarten kids, there was a student who hadn't been well and the parent was concerned young students weren't washing their hands. I tried to convince her that hand washing with soap and water was probably going to be just as effective but she wanted to go a step further.
Anyway, I looked into it further from a WHS point of view. After speaking to Safework NSW (for other states, you should check with your governing body) they had this advice - for alcohol based hand sanitiser, it is okay to have it in a classroom but needs to be managed by the class teacher, students, regardless of age, should not have free access to it. Remember that some of these can contain about 80% alcohol. If it is stored in the classroom and there is a chance is may not be used "in accordance with the directions on the label", it should be added to your chemical register and a copy of the SDS be obtained. If it is purchased in small quantities, stored in a staff room and only used by adults, it does not need to be added to the register.
So, bottom line, don't waste your money on false claims. Thanks for sharing this with us all, Kathryn.

Every year I have "discussions" with the Junior School teachers about ethanol based hand sanitiser. I tell them it is ok for under Yr 7's to use it as long as it is stored out of reach and monitored by the teacher. They insist that being on the teacher's desk is sufficient monitoring. I passed it on to the head of Juniors to talk to them about it. Even thought they are unlikely to drink it, it can actually cause quite bad skin sensitivity if too much is used.

You would think they wouldn't drink it, but...
We had a young secondary student who drank hand soap as a dare. He wasn't very well afterwards! I figure is someone can drink a handful of blue liquid soap, someone will have a go at the hand sanitiser.
I don't get primary teachers - they think that their desk has some magical powers that prevents students from accessing it. Maybe we all spend too much time with teenagers?