Hand sanitisers do their job well in keeping kids’ hands clean, but they can also get addictive, warn doctorsEight-year-old Anya Kapoor does not go to school without a hand sanitiser. “Everyone in school carries it and it comes in handy at school because even thought there is water to wash hands, there is no soap,” she says. Anya is one of the many people who are now obsessed with cleaning their hands with a hand sanitiser.It is an alcohol-based gel that does not require water and instantly kills most bacteria and viruses on the skin. “It is a quick way to disinfect hands, it’s easy to carry and is widely available in all department stores,” say Dr S.K. Aggarwal, Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi. In a study by the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital, Boston, out of 292 families – all had at least one child – half were given a hand sanitiser to use on a daily basis. They were told to use it after going to the toilet, before preparing food, after diaper change, after putting out the trash etc. For five months, the researchers tracked the families and found that the ones that had been given the hand sanitizer had a 59 per cent lower incidence of illnesses as compared to the other group. Hand sanitizers work by stripping the outer layer of the oil on the skin. “This is what prevents bacteria from coming to the surface of the hand, thus preventing a large number of hand to mouth illnesses,” says Dr Aggarwal.However, using a hand sanitizer can also make you more prone to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). “It’s the same as compulsively washing hands. Because the sanitiser can be used anywhere, people tend to overuse it. I once had a patient who would use it after every five minutes, even after using her office phone,” says Dr Suresh Chandra, Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi. In some cases, hand sanitizers kill more germs than soap and water. “This is because alcohol is much stronger than soap,” says Dr Chandra. However, hand sanitizers should ideally only be used when soap and water are not available. “The longer it has been since you’ve used soap and water, the less effective is the hand sanitiser going to be. It is only to be used when the option of soap and water is not there,” says Dr Aggarwal.Doctors say it is advisable to not give a hand sanitiser to your child. “Children use everything like a toy. If you give them a sanitiser, they will probably use it five times in 15 minutes. Not only will the presence of alcohol in the gel make their skin dry, it will end up killing the germs that are not exactly bad. Not only will this affect their body’s immunity to fight germs, but might also make them prone to OCD,” say Dr Aggarwal.You need to be careful while picking a sanitiser for yourself. “Make sure to pick one which has the maximum amount of alcohol. Since, it’s the alcohol that helps kill the germs, you should concentrate more on that instead of the fragrance of the sanitiser,” says Dr Aggarwal. A sanitizer with less than 60 per cent alcohol will not completely kill the bacteria.
