How to Choose a Hand Sanitizer in India?
Normally, a basic hand sanitiser or a hand cream with basic anti-bacterial ingredients is enough to maintain your hand hygiene. That situation has completely changed now. We are in times of COVID 19 Pandemic. The potency and spread of COVID 19 Coronavirus are increasing every day.
The best safety measure we can take to fight the coronavirus is our personal and hand hygiene. That is why; you need potent, quick-action alcohol-based hand sanitizers to safeguard yourself. WHO and the world health organization also recommend alcohol-based hand sanitizer. To help you out, we have chosen the best hand sanitizer in India for you (alcohol-based).
Related: Best Hand Sanitizer in India
Why We Choose Alcohol-Based Best Hand Sanitizer For You?
Here are valid data and facts about alcohol-based sanitizers for you.
Fact 1
The World Health Organization recommends alcohol-based hand rubs/hand sanitizers based on following proven facts
- Alcohol-Based Hand sanitizers are the best means of rapidly and effectively inactivating a wide array of potentially harmful microorganisms on hands.
- These are best for quick disinfection. They can be used at the lack of accessibility to sink, clean water, towels, or other facilities to maintain hygiene.
- The ease of availability at the point of patient care is an added advantage for hand rubs.
- Action against a broad spectrum of microbial activities, fast action, minimized efforts all make alcohol-based hand sanitizers a top pick compared to other formulations.
Fact 2
WHO and Top medical institutions across the world have recommended avoiding hand sanitizers that have Triclosan in it.
Triclosan is a toxic ingredient to be avoided at any cost in any product. When mixed with tap water (chlorine content), Triclosan releases carcinogenic dioxins.
That is why, from our list of top 10 best hand sanitizers, we never have a hand sanitizer that has Triclosan in it actively or inactively.
Fact 3
Alcohol-Free Hand Sanitizers perform low compared to alcohol-based hand Sanitizers
Alcohol is the best disinfectant recommended and used until now by all medical institutions and health care places. These alcohol based hand sanitizers provide a quick and potent solution to disinfect the surroundings, products, and equipment which is always used by doctors and other health-care professionals.
Key Differences between Alcohol-Free and Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizers are:Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizers Vs Alcohol Free Hand Sanitizers
| Alcohol-Based | Alcohol-Free |
|---|---|
| Alcohol-Based Sanitizers will have Ethyl Alcohol, Isopropyl Alcohol, Chlorhexidine, and Hydrogen Peroxide. | Alcohol-Free sanitizers will have quaternary ammonium compounds like Benzalkonium Chloride instead of alcohol to reduce germs. |
| The 60-70% or more percentage of alcohol is always effective against killing germs, microbes, and others. | These ammonium agents are less effective in killing germs compared to alcohol. |
| These ammonium agents are less effective in killing germs compared to alcohol. | Alcohol-Free sanitizers may not provide a broad spectrum of microbial activities even when the percentage is increased. |
| Hand sanitizers come with active alcohol ingredients anywhere between 60-70% and more. | Many Alcohol-free hand sanitizers come with 0.1 – 0.5% concentration of Benzalkonium. The other ingredients will be more like Vitamin E, botanical extracts, distilled water, fragrance, etc. For Ex: Low % of Benzalkonium is ineffective compared to an alcohol hand sanitizer with 60% ethyl alcohol in it. |
| Alcohol-Based hand sanitizers will make your skin and hand go dry upon continuous use. | Alcohol-Based hand sanitizers will make your skin and hand go dry upon continuous use. |
| When accidentally swallowed, alcohol sanitizers are highly dangerous to internal organs. | Alcohol-Free hand sanitizers are safer. When accidentally consumed swallowed, there will be no severe immediate damage. |
| They have high fire-hazard | They have low fire-hazard |
| Recommended by WHO, FDA, America’s CDC, and other top medical institutions. | Hospitals, health care facilities, and hygiene centers mostly avoid alcohol-free sanitizers due to its less-effectiveness compared to alcohol. |
| Alcohol in itself is an excellent Preservative. | External preservatives have to be added in alcohol-free sanitizers. More chemical added may cause skin irritation |
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Fact 4
Alcohol, in general, is effective in killing bacteria and viruses
Alcohols have the nature of destroying disease-causing pathogens or agents by breaking their protein, destroying the cell walls or by altering cell metabolism. Solutions that have a little of 30-35% of alcohol is capable of germ-killing.
The pathogen-killing capability actually gets a hike with an increase to the alcohol content.
Another major advantage of Alcohol is, the bacteria will not develop any resistance towards it.
Even with continued use, alcohol is still potent in killing them.
Whereas, an alcohol-free hand sanitizer that has Benzalkonium in it, should have a concentration of more than 0.10%. Only then, it comes equal to alcohol-based sanitizers in destroying germs.
When it comes to a broad spectrum of pathogen-killing, alcohol works competently compared to alcohol-free solutions.
Fact 5
The WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care states that:
- Alcohol-based hand rubs have excellent antimicrobial activity against Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative vegetative Bacteria.
- Alcohol-based hand rubs have good antimicrobial action against enveloped viruses.
- Alcohol solutions containing 60-80% alcohol is the most effective in reducing the bacterial counts on our hands.
These are the 5 facts that state the importance of using alcohol-based hand sanitizers to fight COVID 19 virus and kill bacteria and other pathogens.
How We Choose The Top 10 Best Hand Sanitizer Brands In India?
We have to explain to wonderful readers like you all to know why we chose particular hand sanitizer brands. Not like other products hand sanitizers are getting very popular now. So here we picked the best hand sanitizer brands to consider in India based on few facts.
1.Brand Trust
Due to the high demand for hand sanitizers like never before during this COVID 19, many people have started manufacturing their hand-sanitizers and market them.
Brand that came after the pandemic of COVID 19 are not be completely trusted. The quality of those hand-sanitizer manufacturers is highly questionable. That is why; we have chosen trusted brand hand-sanitisers.
2.Ease of Availability
Not everyone can access high-end sanitisers that are available only through online portals.
Also, not everyone can afford costlier hand sanitizers. That is why; we took care of picking sanitizers that are easily available across the online stores, medical stores, provisional stores, and other retail outlets nearby to people locality.
3.Affordable Price Range
A quality hand-sanitizer should be easily available at an affordable price range for everyone. Our list of hand sanitizer available online in India is affordable by everyone.
4.Brand’s Backup Claims
Hand-sanitizer brands advertise their product to be highly effective against 99.9% germs. We referred to the brand’s official websites and other resources to look for backups that validate such claims.
Brands like Lifebuoy, Godrej, Savlon, Dettol, and Mira Belle have mentioned the lab-tests or clinical-tests they did to determine the effectiveness of their respective hand-sanitizers. For those brands which we couldn’t find any, we have mentioned them for your view.
5.Effectiveness
WHO, America’s Centre for Disease Control (CDC), our very own Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have all recommended alcohol-based hand rubs/hand sanitizers.
Irrespective of brands, a hand-sanitizer with more than 60% of alcohol, manufactured under hygienic conditions is proven to be potent in killing pathogens. That is why we have chosen most of our products to be alcohol-based sanitizers.
Considering all valid data, here is our list of top 10 best hand sanitizer in India.
How To Use A Hand Sanitizer According To World Health Organization?
People are not properly using their hand sanitizer. People pour a small quantity. They give it a quick rub and move on to do their tasks.
This is not the right way.
To use a Hand-Sanitizer
- Pump out enough hand-sanitizer to cover all hand-surfaces.
- Rub palm-to-palm.
- Use the palm of each hand to rub the back of the other hand.
- Rub hands palm-to-palm with fingers interlaced.
- Rub the back of the fingers in opposing palms, fingers interlocked.
- Rub each thumb fingers in the palm of the other hand. Do it in a rotational manner.
- Make sure you cover your nails.
- Rub your fingers back and forth in circles in the palm of the opposite hands.
- Once the alcohol dries, it is done.
The time taken to do the steps properly would be more than 30 seconds. This is the right amount of time to use the hand sanitizer effectively.
A quick pour of small quantity and a quick rub is not the right way to use a hand-sanitizer.
Here is quick view of the best hand sanitizers
