Author Topic: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)  (Read 1385 times)

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Offline HalcyonTopic starter

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Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« on: July 27, 2022, 09:58:41 am »
If you're in Australia and after some decent hand sanitiser (combination of Chlorhexidine Gluconate and up to 70% ethanol), then a beer supply company in Victoria is selling some off cheap as the April 2022 expiry date has come and gone and they obviously have a lot of excess stock. The only risk is that the ethanol content may not be as high as stated on the label, otherwise it's still perfectly usable.

I've been using the same batch for about 6 months and it feels nice on the skin. It's very low viscosity (like water), not sticky and actually leaves the hands feeling fairly smooth and not dry (like 100% ethanol). Most importantly, it's still extremely flammable, so still effective as a topical hand sanitising solution.

$1.95 per 500 mL bottle or $0.99 in quantities of 22+, plus shipping.

https://www.kegland.com.au/ethanol-chlorhexidine-hand-rub-sanitiser.html

Not sponsored etc... etc... Just a previous customer of KegLand.
 

Online jpanhalt

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Re: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2022, 07:11:30 pm »
One can't argue with that price.  It's only about twice what I pay for soda water in quantity to dilute various beverages, including my favorite blended scotch -- not single malt. 

1) For the dyslexics in the crowd, do not confuse chlorhexidine with hexachlorophene (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexachlorophene).  The latter is much more toxic.
2) Anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activity do not translate directly into anti-viral activity.   In vitro studies show only that there is antimicrobial activity, not whether that will help in actual application. 
3) For SARS-CoV-2, activity of chlorhexidine compared to just hand washing is controversial:
Quote
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10266-021-00660-x
"In conclusion, CHX [chlorhexidine] may present an interesting virucidal efficacy against HSV-1 and Influenza A viruses. However, reductions of HCoV and SARS-CoV-2 strains, when assessed in vitro, have not yet been demonstrated. In addition, rising [sic] with CHX may temporarily reduce the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in patients with COVID-19."
4) Studies done to evaluate topical antiseptics are particularly difficult to do technically and are often controversial.  Most important, they uniformly lack clinical studies showing any positive advantage.  Distinguishing between antimicrobial activity per se versus physical removal (e.g., hand washing), versus residual activity (e.g., any soap versus alcohol) is extremely difficult. Trying to "sterilize" your hands is futile.  That can easily be shown with "gloved-hand" experiments and cultures of what's in the gloves after removal.

My opinion is that hand washing is adequate.  If you cannot wash your hands, then an antiseptic cleanser may help, but I wouldn't go out of my way to use it.  Preparations with alcohol can cause dry skin with continuous use, which itself can add to the risk of infections to yourself or transmission of infectious agents to others. 
 

Offline thm_w

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Re: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2022, 10:27:53 pm »
I did buy a bunch of surplus hand sanitizer to use as cleaning solution, not for hands.
Its not ideal, as it leaves some residue, so I wouldn't use it on any sort of sensitive PCB. But for cleaning off dirty plastics, etc it does a good job.

I don't think Chlorhexidine Gluconate evaporates in this case.
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Offline SmallCog

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Re: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2022, 01:40:57 am »
I bought some big 1L bottles from Bunnings a while back for $1 each, they had a pallet of them near the registers they were clearing out.

I've been using it in place of methylated spirits for general cleaning, or as a first clean.

Hadn't considered the "if it burns" test but it makes logical sense
 

Offline HalcyonTopic starter

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Re: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2022, 01:54:32 am »
Hadn't considered the "if it burns" test but it makes logical sense

It was completely non-scientific and more borne out of curiosity. I figured if there was enough ethanol remaining for it to burn easily, then it's still fine as a general hand sanitising solution for most people. These particular containers and the pump seem pretty airtight. Through normal use, the walls of the container have been sucked in due to negative pressure, so I figured any evaporation will be minimal.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2022, 01:56:15 am by Halcyon »
 

Offline Infraviolet

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Re: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2022, 01:12:39 am »
All other things aside, that would be 70% concentration alcohol, useless for cleaning electronics, just as the >99% wanted for electronics is rather crap at killing microbes (can't get at them properly without 30% or so water to let it seep in to their structures).
 

Online jpanhalt

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Re: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2022, 11:32:19 am »
Yes, absolute ethanol is less effective against microbes than 70% to 95%; although, I would not call its activity terrible.  Water seems to be necessary for good activity and is ubiquitous.  Such alcohols are not active against spores (e.g., Clostridium spores).  That has been known for quite awhile.  Another problem with absolute ethanol is that it is a good solvent for oils and fats.  Thus, it can cause drying of skin.  Most people should be aware that methanol and aliphatic alcohols higher than butanol are poor disinfectants.  Butanol is far less active than ethanol or propanols.

Here are two recently reviewed guidelines/studies:
https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/disinfection/disinfection-methods/chemical.html  (reviewed 2016)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7132458/  (virucidal activity)

Note the relative lack of activity against non-enveloped v. enveloped viruses.  SARS-related, HSV, and influenza A (epidemic flu) are enveloped.
 

Offline Gregg

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Re: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2022, 06:03:24 am »
You could distill the alcohol out of the solution with a distillation column, not a vat style still and get something close to 95% ethanol for cleaning purposes.  I wouldn't drink it however.
 

Offline AndyBeez

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Re: Cheap hand sanitiser for sale in Australia (Not spam)
« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2022, 08:34:35 am »
Vodka + Wallpaper paste

That's what was being sold as hand saniTIZER in the UK at the start of the pandemic. Rum and Swarfega was also a combination. Meanwhile, Gin was never used as the English middle class needed every bottle to booze from home when working from home.

Thinks, does your aussie sanitiser clean off solder flux? Or just strip the enamel from teeth?
 


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