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Quote:
Originally Posted by jdeborja
Given the highly flammable nature of most of the hand sanitizer products, I am surprised that it is allowed as carry on. A number of woodsy folks I know use it with cotton balls as a high temperature fire starter.
Thats what the very nice security man told me in Beijing when he took my sanitizer away. That was the one and only time that happened.
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I think being focused on having clean hands is more important than having hand sanitiser. Wash your hands. Use a paper towel to open the door to the restroom after washing your hands. Be aware of everything you touch that may have been touched by anyone else recently. Door handles. Holding handles in public transport. Hand rails. Restaurant menus. Pedestrian light buttons. Buttons in elevators. Any merchandise in shops. Your credit card, handled by shopkeepers, and your wallet, containing contaminated cash.
Keeping aware of when your hands are clean and when they aren't (and washing them when needed) is I think the best weapon. Not having some silly little bottle of gel, which is contaminated on the outside. (If using, I squirt onto one hand, put the bottle away, then use the gel over my hands. No use getting it out, putting it on the table, using it, then touching the dirty bottle to put it away again!)
If I'm carrying a water bottle I also keep aware of whether it's contaminated or not, and if it is, realising that my hands are contaminated if I touch it.
Very handy indeed. Way before h1n1 started, I carried a small travel bottle. I started doing this after getting a skin irritation in Las Vegas. I think it was all those hands and fingers on the slots that did it. Before eating, I don't have to run to the restaurant's restroom to wash my hands. Even after coming out of a restroom and washing my hands I still put some on.
I'm in the medical business too. Hand sanitisers are unnecessary and expensive crap - just wash your hands with soap and don't put your hands to your mouth after going to the toilet before washing them. As was said before, H1N1 is mostly spread through the air as is influenza more generally - you can't stop either and mostly neither are particularly dangerous. Good general health and ordinary hygiene are your best defense and both are considerably helped by adequate sleep especially while travelling.
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I wash my hands but since the H1N1 threat last winter in Buenos Aires, I always carry my travel size bottle of hand sanitizer, it's very useful, you touch lots of different things, from door handles to coins, and you cannot always go back and wash your hands with soap and water again, so the hand sanitizer helps a lot, and since then my sickness levels have gone down.
Having hand sanitizer vs hand washing is dependent on your situation. There are times when you know you just aren't going to have great access to washing facilities and it makes sense to have the sanitizer as a back-up. I mean, being on a tour bus in Egypt, walking though Valley of the Kings, spending a day in Petra, well, you aren't going to have many chances to see a sink. Walking around Paris, hiking in Tuscany, well, the opportunities for hand washing is better.
At work, we handle lots of money. Our managers have put out hand sanitizer bottles for us to use. It's faster to just turn around and squirt some sanitizer in my hand at my station than to ask for time to close my station and walk back to the bathroom to wash my hands.
So, as far as I'm concerned, it's a total choice depending on your situation and comfort levels.
I am a total Purell Queen. It may not dod anything but I feel better about being able to clean my hands whenever/wherever I want. One thing I would suggest (ust as I do about perfumes, etc.) do not pour this on while on the plane too much. It affects being able to breathe! Also, you may want to bring some hand lotion with you as well since Purell dries out your hands.
I am rather new here but having browsed through all the topics and ourselves currently in the H1N1 pandemic. I wanted to raise a question and poll as to whether you think hand sanitizers has become an important assessory to carry around through our frequent travellers ?
hi INBTraveller,
it can't hurt to put a 100ml / 3oz or smaller bottle of purell or something in your hand bag. it's also not a bad idea to pack some wipes - these are great for wiping down the seat tray table.
don't forget - in the bathroom:
wash your hands with soap and hot water.
grab a paper towel to dry your hands. use that paper towel to shut off the faucet if necessary.
use a paper towel to open any doors to get out of the bathroom if necessary.
I work at a top 20 US medical center and we are required to use alcohol foam dispensers when we enter and leave a patient's room or the operating room. Alcohol based hand sanitizers are the preferred disinfectant over soap and water unless your hands are visibly soiled. We also have to put gloves on after rubbing the alcohol foam on them.
I always bring either Airborne and/or EmergenC prior to boarding, and have both alcohol gel and a travel size pack of disinfectant wipes with me. I don't get sick from flying anymore.
These viruses are airborne but they also get deposited on surfaces too which if touched can also spread. I don't shake anyone's hand anymore either.
I wash my hands but since the H1N1 threat last winter in Buenos Aires, I always carry my travel size bottle of hand sanitizer, it's very useful, you touch lots of different things, from door handles to coins, and you cannot always go back and wash your hands with soap and water again, so the hand sanitizer helps a lot, and since then my sickness levels have gone down.
