by sjlane1960 » Mon Apr 27, 2020 9:52 pm
Just to add some perspective regarding the use of Hand Sanitizer in the Medical World they have a thing called Universal Precautions part of Universal Precautions when dealing with the unknown is to assume everything is infectious & the Hygiene instructions for this mean you Wash your hands & lower arms with soap & water for the 20+ Seconds then use Hand Sanitizer after any perceived exposure to unknown material.
You are also not supposed to unnesc touch your face, put things in your mouth like pens, pencils or food when in the infectious environment & avoid allowing open wounds being exposed to infection.(Before any one whinges this is only the basics not complete you are free to Google Universal Precautions to get the full list) - so to this end the push with Corona-virus Hygiene recommendations is covering the basics at very best.
Its also worth noting that current practice in hospitals & Pathology labs is to provide touchless taps, soap, hand sanitizer & most importantly Sorbolene moisturizing cream to minimize the amount of cracking from the drying out from the soap & sanitizer - its also worth noting that the reason for both soap & Sanitizer is that some infectious material is not completely neutralized by just one of the components so using both gets the best results & this is born out by the experts who have studied Corona-Virus & have found it to have a coating that is disrupted by Soap & Water hence the big emphasis on the Hand Washing but very little mention of Sanitizer.
So to making your own Sanitizer the Medical world has determined ethanol works better than isopropyl alcohol & anything over 60% is effective but get too high you run the risk of causing skin problems. Fortunately WHO has released some good info & recommendations so stick with them.
I speak from 40years of experience in a Pathology Lab environment.
If you are making your own obviously you need to start with a high abv the stripping run from a Pot Still won't have a high enough abv but it will allow you to get rid of the bulk of the Methanol which absorbs thru the skin & is poisonous at the start, so if all you've got is a pot still you will have to send it thru a 2nd time keeping a very close watch to catch the hearts, I have personally observed that the 2nd Run thru an Air Still for instance results in approx 80% abv if carefully monitored & only the 1st bit is caught before it drops off so this can be readily diluted to 60% I personally opt for slightly higher than 60% since I only use Glycerine & Tea Tree oil to dilute the 80% so there is no "Gel" to hold or slow the evaporation down so this allows the end product to be effective after a few weeks in a pump bottle.
Stay safe people
Regards