The world and the people in it have become increasingly aware of the reality of germs. Our concerns about becoming ill as a result of contact with and/or exposure to them, has made many people just a tad OCD-like in their approach to personal preventative hygiene.
One of the more common products that has become increasingly popular as our cultural aversion to germs has grown, are hand sanitizing creams and lotions. Purell Hand Sanitizer is one of them, but is a poor choice because of it’s untoward side-effects.
One needn’t be a chemist to appreciate that the application of Ethyl Alcohol to the skin has an almost immediate drying effect. Yes, it is a good killer of common germs, but in doing so, it creates another problem in its wake – that of dying, drying, flaking skin. In Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer. The Active Ingredient is listed as Ethyl Alcohol, 62%. The balance (the remaining 28% of the formula) is composed of ‘inactive’ additives, the most substantive of which is simply water. The others include six other forms of alcohol and fragrance.
If the condition of the skin on your hands is you first and ONLY priority, there are a plethora of creams available to sooth and moisten them. Among these, I have found Keri Cream and Eucerin to be among the most effective. However, these skin moisturizers have no germ killing properties.
So, if you want BOTH germ killing and smooth, moist skin, you need to shop around for a preparation (there are many) that contain ingredients that address both issues. Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer simply is a single-focus product that suggests that dry, flaking off, dead skin is a reasonable trade off for having the germs on them eliminated.
It is not unusual for people to want and even to expect products they buy to address multiple needs. We are conditioned to think this way because a lot of them do! Think about the various cold and flu preparations, for example, that combine ingredients so as to attack assorted ranges and combinations of symptoms. If you need something that will decongest you, stop your running nose and quiet your cough – no doubt, you can find it, both in formulations that will help you sleep as well as in ones that you can take and remain alert.
The pharmaceutical industry, particularly the element of it aimed at the OTC (Over-The-Counter – non prescription) market, is largely geared to meet this need of consumers for the one-product-does-it-all approach.
In this particular instance, GOJO Industries, the makers of Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer, has missed the boat.
By all means, be cautious and keep your hands clean and as germ-free as is realistic. If you do this in the old fashion way, by washing them with soap and hot water, following up with a small dab of moisturizing cream will take care of both the germ concerns as well as keeping your skin smooth and moisturized. If, on the other hand, you are inclined toward a product that will do both with one application, this is definitely NOT the one.
