Bacteria are something we all are exposed to constantly. A lot of these bacteria can cause illness and should be avoided. This is why it is important that you regularly wash your hands. However washing your hand with soap is not enough. In fact all individuals who work in the food industry are taught the method of using sanitizer properly to clean their hands before returning to work.
If the health department requires using sanitizer properly by professionals in the food industry then shouldn't we expect the same actions from ourselves? There is a proper way of using sanitizer and a wrong way to use sanitizer. Using sanitizer properly greatly reduces your chances of being exposed to or spreading unhealthy germ carrying bacteria. Athough sanitizer was never intended as a complete replacement for washing (especially after using a bathroom), when soap and water are not available, sanitizer provides a good defense against germs.
Despite what you might think, a little goes a long way. You do not need to use a large amount of sanitizer in order for it to work effectively. Hand sanitizer is concentrated and only needs a small amount to do the job.
All children should be using sanitizer as well. Teaching your child to properly use sanitizer can help reduce their risk of contracting a cold. You may think that teaching them to wash their hands is hard enough and this may indeed be true. But if you are teaching a small child to wash their hands then it is a good idea to include using sanitizer as part of the proper method for washing their hands.
If you start a child early enough to wash their hands and use sanitizer then you may be able to make this an automatic process. Of course you will probably have to remind them several hundred times before this becomes automatic but eventually they will get the idea, even if it is just so they don't have to hear you ask if they washed and sanitized their hands.
The proper amount of sanitizer for a child is about the size of a pea. An adult only needs to use a dime sized amount of sanitizer in order to be properly using sanitizer. Any more than this amount is just waste and money you are washing down the drain.
The trick is not in how much you use but how you use it. When using sanitizer properly you need to rub the sanitizer in-between your fingers and around the palms and backs of your hands quickly. One of the primary ingredients in sanitizer is alcohol. It is alcohol that is the active agent and does the work. Alcohol dries quickly and therefore it is important to use the sanitizer the moment you put it in your hand. Otherwise you will not be effectively applying it to your hands. You also do not want to dry your hands. This is a common mistake. Since we are in the habit of drying our hands when they are wet we think we need to do this with sanitizer but truth is that you should let your hands air dry after using sanitizer.
The alcohol actually does its job of killing germs and bacteria as the sanitizer is drying. By drying your hands, you are partly defeating the purpose of using it at all. Once your hands have air dried for up to a minute, then you may decide to apply lotion to your hands. Following these steps will assure you that you are using sanitizer properly and it will help reduce your exposure to cold causing bacteria.
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