In today’s Coronavirus dilemma, everyone’s out hunting for hand sanitizers. Even hand gels, sprays and wipes are hoarded, too. I know some people tried going out everyday just to obsess about the restock of alcohols and sanitizers.
Where in fact, everyone should just be concerned about social distancing and the vigorous washing of hands with soap and water.
Nevertheless, alcohol-based hand sanitizers do have a huge role in killing the coronavirus on the skin. That is, if it contains at least 60% alcohol concentration. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), higher concentrations are better. So you can aim for 70% or higher. 99% isopropyl alcohol is the best to use.
Take note not to use whiskeys, vodkas or alcoholic drinks. A misconception going around the internet about Tito’s Vodka being used to make DIY hand sanitizers prompt the company to release a statement:
You probably tried to buy hand sanitizers online, but the stuff isn’t being shipped yet or it’s taking a long time. That’s because the hand sanitizer shortage prompts suppliers to prioritize sending to hospitals, where healthcare workers need it.
Even if a lot of breweries and distilleries are putting the effort into manufacturing hand sanitizers, it would take a long time before you get a hold of these products.
Now you’re thinking about making your own hand sanitizer, you know, for emergency reasons. And just in case there’s no water or soap available at hand.
So if you’re interested in knowing how to make your own hand rub, you first have to know about the official guidelines. WHO and FDA made efforts to issue these for public awareness on how to properly make hand sanitizers for the safety of the public.
While there are articles citing why it isn’t good to make on your own, there are many experts who also vouch for DIY hand sanitizer recipes.
Later on, I’ll enumerate the things you need to take as a precaution before making safe homemade sanitizers.
The WHO issued a guideline for making hand sanitizers for areas where there’s no clean water and soap available or is scarce. This will be good for a bulk production of hand sanitizers so it is not recommended for consumers who are doing it at home with limited resources. The ingredients are summarized as follows:
The procedure is a lot more complex and requires more equipment and skills. You can see the full procedure here.
Here’s a good recipe on how to make the more complicated Spray Hand Sanitizer at home.
Making your own homemade hand sanitizer is a great idea, but you have to make sure to follow the proper proportions to make it work effectively. The key is to keep a 2:1 ratio of the alcohol and aloe vera. This makes an effective solution to kill viruses. Also make sure that the alcohol is 60% or above in concentration.
Make sure that you’re not using aloe vera that’s not 100% gel as you can get a pretty messed up solution like this:
Even if you’re not an expert, you can make your own hand sanitizer at home, but you need to follow these tips below:
Here’s a simple recipe which is said to kill 99.9% germs in 60 second. The recipe is shared by Dr. Rishi Desai, Osmosis’ chief medical officer and a past epidemic intelligence officer at the CDC.
Here are the basic ingredients you’ll need:
CDC notes that alcohol-based hand sanitizers with the right alcohol content (60% or more) can reduce microbes on your hands. More importantly, it can kill a wide range of pathogens and viruses, including the Coronavirus when applied correctly.
Take note that if your hands are extremely dirty or greasy, it is not advisable to use hand sanitizers. You must get hold of a soap and sink to clean your hands.
Alcohol-based hand sanitizer can do well in cleaning your hands and killing Coronavirus if there’s no water and soap available at hand.
If you ran out of hand sanitizers and it’s not immediately available, you can make your own. It’s fairly easy as you only need alcohol, aloe vera and lemon. Follow the instructions above and your all set.
However, it is still even better to get hold of hand sanitizers that are manufactured by experts. If you want to get hold of hand sanitizers in bulk at a low price, you can outsource now in China. As the country is getting back on track, they are now open for orders of private label alcohol-based hand sanitizers and wholesale orders.