Best Practices for Avoiding Issues From Hand Lotion
 

What are the best practices for avoiding a false positive on a hand swab test from hand lotion?

1. Is there a period of time (such as 24 hours) before flying for which one should avoid using any lotion?

2. In many public restrooms, including at hotels, the handsoap appears to be a lotion soap. Is there a way to use this and avoid having the residue from the lotion remain on one's hands? Does running water over one's hands for a while after using the soap wash it off?

3. Do hand sanitizers have ingredients that would bring about issues? Are there any other tips for avoiding issues that would bring about false positives?

For patdowns, they are only supposed to touch covered parts of your body, not bare skin. Since you obviously don't put lotion on your clothes, I don't see how this would result in a false positive.

With that said, their machines are rather finicky and can pick up just about anything, so I wouldn't worry about it. They will do another test and send you on your way.

At Pre-Check, they do random hand swabbing frequently. (I have had it four out of the last six times).

What I do is wipe off my hands with alcohol before I leave for the airport. I was told to do that by a TSA supervisor.

I was thinking of wearing blue nitrile gloves. It's a medical device, right?

Would one of the alcohol based hand sanitizers work as well? Or do they have some of the organic compounds like lotion that would trigger a false positive.

If glycerin is one of the ingredients, I wouldn't take the chance.

I had problems years ago, mostly from bag handle swabs, but haven't had any in years. I used to use a lotion that contained glycerine and don't now so that may be the reason. I did have a negative hand swab in the last few months.

I do not like glycerin in hand sanitizer, so I often check the label. When I last bought some, the Target brand sanitizer did not include glycerin.

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