clean and sanitize you hands? We are leaving in a month or so for Italy and France and are thinking of taking along packs of the hand-cleansing stuff. Does it work? Do your hands get squeeky clean? Can you use it on other body parts? This is serious, because it seems so much handier that carrying soap.

I don't use that stuff instead of soap! I take it with me during siteseeing, hiking, etc and use it every once in a while when I wash my hands. I think it's good for this to try to keep from getting sick. They say you shouldn't use it too much or it can take away your body's ability to fight germs????<BR>

Dina, I meant "when I can't wash my hands"!!

Wendy, I wonder if it is like too much antibiotics, it looses the ability to kill the germs with over use? Or the germs morph to withstand it?

I always thought it was disinfectant, same kind of stuff you use to clean kitchen surfaces etc.<BR><BR>Not akin to antibiotics at all.<BR><BR>But that's just what I thought, I don't know.<BR><BR>Kavey

Dina<BR>Well it is a disinfectant and doctor's do guard us against using it too much, especially since it also kills so-called "good" germs. But if you're out in the city or country and need to clean your hands in a pinch? You did mention that you wouldn't overuse it.<BR><BR>I wish a doctor would weigh in on this issue.

I like to carry a small pack of those moist toilettes, b/c they don't leak and you can also apply a little scrubbing action. One brand is called "Nice-n'Clean" in a blue wrapper.

Hand sanitizers based on alcohol (including ethanol) and benzalkonium chloride kill over 99 perent of microbes and will not cause them to develop resistance as antibiotics will.<BR><BR>Like Alice, I use moist towelettes becuase it seems more helpful to wipe stuff off. If you want to clean other body parts, take along a little travel-size container of baby wipes.

I find that the alcohol in the hand sanitizers really dries out my skin, so I stick with the moist towelettes. And I'm with Alice about the scrubbing motion.<BR>

Well, you came up with some good points here, I always have to find a tissue to wipe off the good, so a moist toilette would serve both purposes. Do they kill the germs as well? What would be so bad about killing good germs on your hands? Excuse my ignorance on this.

You mean something like Purell instant hand sanitizer?<BR><BR>We used them in Europe, but not INSTEAD of soap. We used a supplied soap when we are next to a sink, but used a sanitizer when not.<BR><BR>After touching bus and metro hand rails, we wanted to have some protection against germs before eating at restaurants. But since it costs money to jump into bathrooms and wash our hands before, we used them for this purpose. It does clean the hand somewhat, but I think the main purpose is what ethanol can do with germs.

I think the truth is that some soap, water and rubbing action is what removes germs; the so-called 'anti-bacterial' component has to be left on for an unreasonable period of time to actually kill germs. So if you can't get to a sink to wash up, the little wipes ought to be a fair substitute.