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We often squirt on hand sanitizer onto our skin without thinking twice about it, and why wouldn’t we? The bottles all appear to make the claim that they effectively kill almost all of the germs found on hands and skin. That promise may be true, but when you use a product that “kills 99% of germs” you inevitably end up killing all of the healthy good bacteria along with the bad. That alone can lead to a lot of far reaching negative consequences, which are covered in more detail below. Once you learn more about the astoundingly horrible impact that hand sanitizer can wreak on your health, you’ll likely never use it again. In the end, it’s much safer and just as effective to use plain old soap and water to clean your hands and skin, here’s why.
1) Helps create drug resistant bacteria. This is a problem which has been steadily growing and is becoming more and more of a threat to public health. When bacteria are exposed to something that kills it over and over again they learn to adapt and evolve ways around it. Over time the bacteria develops a resistance to whatever that may be, whether it’s anti-bacterial hand sanitizer or antibiotics, and they become ineffective at fighting and killing the harmful bacteria. Bacteria which has evolved in this manner are called “superbugs” and they’re responsible for a growing number of deaths with every passing year. When triclosan, the active ingredient in sanitizer, kills the good germs on skin it leaves behind the drug resistant ones because they can’t be killed, and with no competition they flourish.
2) Harms skin. The ingredients in sanitizer are harsh, they have to be in order to kill bacteria, and our skin ends up suffering. Most brands feature ethyl alcohol, aka pure alcohol, as the main ingredient and contain around 65% of it along with other alcohol types like isopropyl alcohol. Together they form up to 95% of the total product and that’s what you’re slathering on your body. Alcohol is easily absorbed into skin and from there it can reach the blood stream. It also dries out skin and increases its absorption abilities, meaning that the other harmful chemicals in sanitizer or that you come into contact with get taken up by your body. Also, kids have been known to drink hand sanitizer to get drunk off of it, that’s just scary.
3) It can increase the amount of Bisephenol A (BPA) in your body. As mentioned above, hand sanitizer increases skins absorption abilities and can thus increase BPA absorption rates. BPA is a chemical that imitates human hormones, leading to disruptions in our bodies natural systems, and it’s virtually impossible to avoid since it’s widely used in making hard plastics. Studies have linked BPA to numerous health problems like cancer, hormone disorders, infertility, diabetes, heart disease, and more. The accompanying video talks about some of these recent studies and focuses more in depth on the BPA problem associated with sanitizer so be sure to check it out.
4) It may contain other harmful chemicals. Many companies fail to list the ingredients or detail what amounts they contain on the label. Other than alcohol and triclosan there are several harmful and dangerous chemicals commonly added to sanitizer. Scented types are worse because they’re far more likely to contain phthalates and parabens, which are used to preserve the product and make it last longer. They have been linked to hormone disruption and production and there’s no way of telling a sanitizer contains them if it’s not listed, which it likely never is.
There are other issues associated with hand sanitizers but these are the main ones that you should be aware and informed of. That way you can look further into the risks and decide for yourself whether or not they outweigh the benefits.
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