Many people are now at least familiar with hand sanitizers and have an awareness that hand sanitizers should contain at least 60% alcohol. What becomes confusing is the alcohol percentage? And it appears that many “off brands” do not understand it either.

The 60% alcohol content as recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is by volume in the total hand sanitizer solution! Not what percentage of alcohol was used to make the hand sanitizer solution.

How Can a Hand Sanitizer that says 75% Alcohol really be only 15% Alcohol?

For example, if a company used 75% alcohol to make their hand sanitizer, but added 80% water, the hand sanitizer solution would be only 15% alcohol by volume. With the CDC recommended minimum at 60%, that is 45% below the CDC minimum! And 65% less alcohol than SaniX80™ Extreme Sanitizer.

Unfortunately, that was not an extreme example, but taken from a label of a new hand sanitizer now available and selling thru Facebook and Google Ads.  Below is a copy of the label ingredients. The first thing that is a giant tip-off is that it is nearly 80% water! Even if the remaining 20% were 100% alcohol, the final solution would only be 20% alcohol by volume! But they only used 75% alcohol to start with so the as shown above, this hand sanitizer is only 15% alcohol.

Ingredients
Purified Water	79.58%
75% Alcohol	20%
Carbomer	0.20%
Thriethanolamine	0.20%
Silver	0.02%
Bottle Size：	10.9×3.0x4.5cm
Volue:	70ml
Net Weight：	77.9g
Unit Weight:	85.7g

This hand sanitizer is clearly not FDA compliant. Therefore, it is illegal and potentially dangerous! The FDA is very strict on what additional ingredients are added to hand sanitizers. “Triethanolamine” is not even spelled correctly (or Volume) and what is “Silver” doing in a hand sanitizer?

We could continue with other examples of what to stay away from in hand sanitizers and there are probably more on the way! The key to evaluating a hand sanitizer is “read the label!”

Number 1 – Understand clearly that the alcohol content “by volume” is 60% or above.

Number 2 – Look at the water content. If the hand sanitizer contains more than 40% water, then even if it was made with 100% alcohol it would be below 60% alcohol by volume.

Number 3 – See what other ingredients are listed. Glycerin/Glycol, Alo Vera, Hydrogen Peroxide are the most common. Other ingredients should sound the warning bells!

How does SaniX80™ Extreme Sanitizer compare? First, it is made from 100% alcohol and the other ingredients (Glercin, Hydrogen Peroxide, and purified water) total 20% of the volume. Therefore, SaniX80e™ Extreme Sanitizer is a “true” 80% Alcohol by volume!

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For us saying, “Don’t make your own hand sanitizer,” at first, may seem self-serving.

Are we trying to discourage you from making your own hand sanitizer so that you will buy SaniX80e™ Extreme Sanitizer instead? Well yes, if it is safer and healthier for you, and this goes for you using any FDA approved hand sanitizer over risky and potentially dangerous alternatives.

Why You Should Not Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

(standing in the home kitchen) “Hi, can’t find hand sanitizer in the store? No problem! I’m going to show you how to make your very own hand sanitizer at home with common kitchen utensils and household ingredients, let’s get started!”

Making hand sanitizer as presented by the many youtube.com videos (and news stations) may seem easy and almost fun – if it was not so serious! Many of them give conflicting information and/or varying formulas. What is worse, many of the formulas may not kill COVID-19!

Dr. Stephen Morse, Ph.D., who is an infectious disease specialist from Columbia University agrees with the Center for Disease Control that alcohol-based sanitizers need to contain at least 60% ethanol. However, even he contributes to some of the confusion by saying that hand sanitizers should be, “preferably at least 62 percent or at least 70 percent isopropanol.”

Currently, the FDA states that ethanol alcohol content by volume should be 80% and isopropanol content by volume should be 75%. By the way, SaniX80™ Extreme Sanitizer is manufactured to the current FDA standard of 80%.

Many of the “youtube.com” formulas do not contain Hydrogen Peroxide and if they do, the specific Hydrogen Peroxide to use is not made clear. Hydrogen peroxide is used to inactivate contaminating bacterial spores in the solution.

NOTE: Hydrogen peroxide on its own is not an active substance for hand antisepsis!

It can be confusing to understand the difference between ethanol, isopropanol, and methanol, plus the varying names used for each one. For a little more confusion, then add in what the strength percentages mean and how they are calculated as a volume in the final solution – “mandated” by the FDA and WHO. If you are curious, the common ways to check alcohol content by volume in the final solution mixture is by gas chromatography, alcoholmeter, hydrometer or chemical analysis. In watching all the “cringeworthy” DIY videos we have yet to see this mentioned? Also, alcohol is highly flammable! Especially at the higher concentration that “should” be used directly into mixing the formula.

The FDA Regulates Hand Sanitizers

Many people are not aware that the FDA regulates hand sanitizers. This is done because hand sanitizers need to be reliable as an antiseptic and not harmful in any way beyond reason.

A hand sanitizer that does not adequately kill germs, is like a parachute that doesn’t open all the way or doesn’t open at all! (both can be deadly)

Along with warning consumers to be careful about making their own hand sanitizer, experts also warn about mistakenly buying do-it-yourself versions made by amateurs. For example, a boy in New Jersey suffered burns after using sanitizer made by a 7-Eleven store owner.

Going along with some people hoarding hand sanitizer for themselves or selling it through “price gouging” (can be unlawful in a state of emergency), are others who are trying to formulate their own hand sanitizers for quick cash – but not in compliance with the FDA. There are even companies doing this against the FDA. For example, in our research, we discovered a cosmetic company that came out with their own hand sanitizer. It obviously is not FDA compliment because it has Tea Tree as an ingredient which is not permitted by the FDA.

You should check the label of the hand sanitizer to make sure it is properly labeled and with ingredients listed on the label (The FDA has a standard for this) and manufactured by a legitimate business.

Hand Sanitizer is mostly used for convenience, to have clean hands when you don’t have access to soap and water or don’t have time to wash. And certainly, if there is no alternative, and you have to take the risk of being exposed to COVID-19, then trying to make your own hand sanitizer may be your only alternative. With that in mind, we are doing all we can so that you don’t have to take this risk!

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