Thursday, October 30, 2008

Soap vs. Sanitizer



Which works better? Soap or Sanitizer? While alcohol-based gels remove more germs, plain soap and water are fine for everyday washing. But neither work unless you do it right. The biggest mistakes: with soap, it's speed washing - it takes 15 seconds of lathering to reduce bacterial count by 90 percent, 30 seconds to get 99.9 percent - and speed drying. "Wet hands are more likely to speed drying germs than dry ones.

You must dry for at least 20 seconds with a towel. With sanitizers, studies have shown that most people don't use enough. You need to cover all surfaces of your hands - the tops (often neglected) and between the fingers, as well as the palms.