Why I Hate Hand Sanitizers
Sure, hand sanitizers might be the in thing for the slightly obsessive compulsive aspect of the population out there, or for people who just want to keep their hands clean for one reason or another. The thing is, I hate them – hate them with a vengeance. If you’re wondering why I hate hand sanitizers, read on and be amazed. There’re a lot of things out there that never come to the light of day, a lot of information that you never see on television.
Bacteria – Not Always Bad
Indiscriminate destruction’s never been a good idea and that’s why I hate hand sanitizers – hand sanitizers carpet bomb your hand and send all kinds of bacteria into oblivion. Yep, even the good ones. See, when you get rid of all the good and bad bacteria, you’re easily left with some nasty, super resistant bacteria that suddenly have a large playground to mess with. Back in day, people made a little something called soap and used that to clean their hands.
Soap’s still a viable way of cleaning your hand and it doesn’t have the key ingredient in hand sanitizers – triclosan. Incidentally, triclosan and the things it can do makes up one of the biggest reasons why I hate hand sanitizers.
Triclosan
Triclosan, like I said before, is the biggest reason why I hate hand sanitizers. At the most basic level, it’s a bad thing because it just doesn’t leave your body. Studies have shown, 3 out of 5 instances of triclosan simply stay in your body in the environment, resisting a breakdown. See, the way triclosan is made puts it into contact with chlorine and chlorinated water. This produces a little thing called a dioxin – incidentally, it’s an environmental pollutant.
Triclosan, incidentally, also counts as something called a carcinogen. Carcinogens cause cancer and as well all know, cancer’s not a joke. It can also combine with chlorinated water to form chloroform gas, a very dangerous gas that can really cause trouble for a person’s nervous system. Theoretically, it could even cause reproductive issues, though that has not been quite confirmed.
Keep out of Reach
Kids just enjoy tasting everything around them – it’s part of learning how to be a part of the world and a big part of being a kid. Everything just seems special and amazing. Hand sanitizers can cause a lot of trouble in that respect. It’s gooey and sometimes comes with a nice scent. It’s pretty much begging a kid to eat it. The alcohol present in a single squirt of a hand sanitizer is enough to make a kid drunk and with enough of a dose, potentially kill them.
Go back to soap if you’re frequently around kids. A quick walk versus the potential safety of a kid? Definitely worth it.
The Clean End
Cleanliness is next to godliness, but it can cost people more than what they’re expecting. It’s why I hate hand sanitizers – they promise a lot of ease of use without really warning people of all the trouble that they could cause.