Can You Make Hand Sanitisers At Home? Well, Sort Of
There are various trends doing the rounds on social media during the lockdown. One is making facemasks at home. This is actually feasible as well as a necessary trend, as face masks are extremely essential when you step out of your house. What’s the other trend? It’s making hand sanitisers.
There is some verity to the fact that alcohol-based hand sanitisers are effective in the fight against Covid-19, if used in the same way as soap and water and applied properly for 20 seconds.
What is the basic requirement of a hand sanitiser? It should contain an alcohol percentage of at least 60% so that it is effective in killing germs. Anything below that is not as effective and just provides a false sense of security.
Before we look at whether we should make hand sanitisers at home, let’s take a look at how it is made. It’s not really recommended by any health agency or by us, but it’s good to know how to make one if you find yourself in a pinch and need to make some hand sanitizer at home.
As with everything, take care, get more information and use this article only as reference and not a defining guide on how to make hand sanitiser at home.
The main ingredients required are:
- 1 cup Aloe Vera Gel
- 3 cups Rubbing alcohol, which is 99 percent alcohol by volume
- Optional- Essential oils for fragrance
The method for making hand sanitisers involves mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl and whisking until it forms a gel-like consistency. Yes, if you have whipping experience because of Dalgona coffee, you can put it to better use here. Once this gel is formed, bottle it for use as and when required.
Should you really make the sanitiser at home? Our advice would be to stick to the age-old hand-washing methods and not falling prey to the whole “fashion” of making sanitisers and putting it up as Instagram stories.
While it is fairly easy to procure the ingredients required to make sanitisers in India, the solution, if not made properly, can prove to be less effective. Also, it may turn out to be harmful in some cases if you end up using too much of the rubbing alcohol. As US-based Food and Drug Administration says on its website, “If made incorrectly, hand sanitiser can be ineffective, and there have been reports of skin burns from homemade hand sanitiser.”
Hand sanitisers are essential during this pandemic, to protect yourself. But a better alternative would be to avoid stepping out, and touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, as much as possible. And when you do need to, wash your hands first for at least 20 seconds with a disinfectant soap and water. How do you time yourself for 20 seconds? Just sing Happy Birthday twice.
Stay home, stay safe and stay away from Instagram fads.
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