# Why are hand sanitizer makers putting sticky, slimy, gooey glycerin and stuff in the liquid?



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

I like to rub some hand sanitizer on my hands when I get back in my truck after shopping. But the stuff they are selling is so sticky I hate it. It does not ever evaporate. That gets my steering wheel and shifter sticky.

It's the 70% alcohol that kills germs. The rest of the stuff is "inactive ingredients" put there to keep my hands from drying out or something.

Dry hands is not my problem. Sticky, slimy, gooey hands is my problem.

(I've started using pure alcohol, but cheap rubbing alcohol went the way of aerosol Lysol spray months ago and is not to be found on shelves.)

Typical label:


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

I just got some for the first time in my life and u r right. I have 97% alcohol in a spray bottle I use sometimes and mixed some with hand soap in my bathroom dispenser. Either way, it dries my skin out!
I put a bottle of alcohol and a hand towel in my to sanitize my hands without the gooey sticky feeling.
normally, i don't use anything.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Not all do. Some are as thin as water that runs through your fingers and onot the floor before you can rub it around the entire hand.


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## CKelly78z (Jul 16, 2017)

I think I have used hand sanitizer twice since March, just not a part of my regimen. My wife's boss has had an addiction to hand sanitizer ever since I met him. No kidding, he is sanitizing his hands every time he touches something (every 15 minutes or so).


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

He must have hands like a rough oak.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

You should sanitize from the inside out


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

make sure it is at least 60%....


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## SpentPenny (Jun 11, 2020)

The glycerin keeps the alcohol from evaporating too quickly. Alcohol is not an instant kill - it can take from a few seconds to a minute to kill germs so if it evaporates too quickly you may not get your hands completly covered or you may not get a good kill on all germs.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

i dont know what's in the stuff that i'm using but today i noticed all these little black pecks on me. the coating on the steering wheel is disintegrating. i'll have to get a cloth cover as soon as i get to the hardware store. ~Georgia


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## Kstar (Jun 14, 2020)

I'm not quite sure.

I guess it's possible the demand is high and they're finding a way to stretch hand sanitizer. Maybe it works as a binder so it forms a good glob in your hand and also sticks to your hands longer.


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## Hiro (Feb 14, 2016)

SpentPenny said:


> The glycerin keeps the alcohol from evaporating too quickly. Alcohol is not an instant kill - it can take from a few seconds to a minute to kill germs so if it evaporates too quickly you may not get your hands completly covered or you may not get a good kill on all germs.


That is the main reason for the addition of glycerin or other similar additives. The other reason is if you use alcohol regularly to sterilize your hands, the skin will become dry and more porous and more susceptible to allowing a pathogen to enter your body that way. The Wuflu is not the only pathogen in the world and hand sanitizer wasn't made just for it.


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## audacity (Feb 14, 2020)

CKelly78z said:


> I think I have used hand sanitizer twice since March, just not a part of my regimen. My wife's boss has had an addiction to hand sanitizer ever since I met him. No kidding, he is sanitizing his hands every time he touches something (every 15 minutes or so).


lol -- I don't normally run around washing my hands all the time, but I had to admit, I can't often walk past a Purell dispenser and NOT get some. My inner child likes the way it goes from a gel to a liquid to nothing, and for some reason, I also like the smell.

I have been seeing a lot of "knock off" hand sanitizers though. I don't want pure liquid that just ends up going anywhere, but I also don't want a hand cream.


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## CKelly78z (Jul 16, 2017)

I'm not sure, so I am asking...would over using hand sanitizer reduce your immune system towards a viral infection, if you weren't immediately able to use more hand sanitizer ? It seems like having constantly dirty hands (from being on the farm) actually helps me keep the sickness away.


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

audacity said:


> My inner child likes the way it goes from a gel to a liquid to nothing, and for some reason, I also like the smell.


When it first became the rage at the start of the corona virus situation, it did go on wet, got slightly sticky for a minute, and then dried up.

None that I can find does that now. It stays gooey, sticky until I get to a lavatory to wash it off.

Sometimes I just wipe it off with a rag when I am starting to drive.


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## audacity (Feb 14, 2020)

CKelly78z said:


> I'm not sure, so I am asking...would over using hand sanitizer reduce your immune system towards a viral infection, if you weren't immediately able to use more hand sanitizer ? It seems like having constantly dirty hands (from being on the farm) actually helps me keep the sickness away.


I don't think it's wise to _constantly _hand sanitizer, but I do think it's appropriate when you're out-and-about in the general public, and are actively touching things (door knobs, public pens, etc).

As far as immune systems go -- There was a study done a little while back that connected obsessive cleanliness with the rise in childhood leukemia. It found that children were much more likely to develop leukemia if they had both a genetic predisposition and were raised in a home where everything was always wiped down (compared to each factor on its own).


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## DebbieJ (Oct 9, 2016)

I always put either Thieves of Shield Essential oil blend in my hand sanitizers. If the alcohol does evaporate, the EO will still kill the germs. And it smells good too.


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## Sierra Nana (Feb 13, 2020)

The recipe for hand sanitizer.(For those who still need it.)
· 1 cup of 99.8% isopropyl alcohol
· 1 tablespoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide
· 1 teaspoon of 98% glycerin
· ¼ cup of sterile distilled water or boiled water that has cooled
*1. *Pour the alcohol into a glass container.
*2. *Add hydrogen peroxide.
*3.* Add glycerin and stir vigorously to combine as it is much thicker than alcohol and hydrogen peroxide.
*4.* Add sterilized water or the cooled boiled water and stir.
*5. *Pour into spray bottles.
*6.* Let the bottles rest for 72 hours. This will kill any bacteria that might be present, especially if you are reusing the containers.
That’s it.
For hand sanitizer to be effective, the CDC recommends an overall content of least 60% alcohol. That means that if you make the WHO formula with 70% isopropyl alcohol instead of 99%, you should skip the water.
(You can add essential oils for fragrance.)


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## DebbieJ (Oct 9, 2016)

I use the gel kind of sanitizer. How is it made?


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## Sierra Nana (Feb 13, 2020)

DebbieJ said:


> I use the gel kind of sanitizer. How is it made?


Recipes here: How to Make Gel Alcohol Hand Sanitizer

The trick is to make sure your hands are dry after applying the sanitizer before touching other surfaces.


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## Josep34 (Dec 12, 2020)

audacity said:


> I don't think it's wise to _constantly _hand sanitizer, but I do think it's appropriate when you're out-and-about in the general public, and are actively touching things (door knobs, public pens, etc).
> 
> As far as immune systems go -- There was a study done a little while back that connected obsessive cleanliness with the rise in childhood leukemia.
> 
> ...


Children raised in homes where everything is meticulously kept were found to have as much as a 6-fold higher chance of contracting some type of childhood cancer compared to children who were raised in homes where the family did not sterilize dishes often.


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## Wolf mom (Mar 8, 2005)

Josep34 said:


> Children raised in homes where everything is meticulously kept were found to have as much as a 6-fold higher chance of contracting some type of childhood cancer compared to children who were raised in homes where the family did not sterilize dishes often.


I remember the old saying "Every kid needs to eat is pound of dirt." There are reasons for the old sayings. Today, we seem to want to throw the baby out with the bathwater....


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## DebbieJ (Oct 9, 2016)

I agree with the old saying! I probably ate more than a pound of dirt. I loves playing outside. As did my children. I tried telling my ex-DIL that about her children. One out of three has an autoimmune disease. One is in the military and one was sickly as a child. Thank God all are still alive,


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Old country people used to say that a child needed to "get a little dirt in their craw".

I kind of agree. (I got PLENTY as a poor country child.) But I also wonder if exposure to germs and unsanitary conditions as children helped weed out the weak ones that were more sensitive to such things. Survival of the fittest, you know.


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## HonestAbe (Nov 20, 2020)

85% ethanol is pretty cheep ?


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