Australia's Science Forum

Hi

Recently a whole bunch of hand cleaner dispensers were installed throughout our school and the product within them is hand sanister which is 70% ethanol. The SDS says that no skin reactions are expected but I know for myself my hands dry out very quickly using the stuff. Personally I would prefer a non-ethanol based product to be used, but am I just being pedantic? Certainly for the preschool class they are only allowed to use soap (they have different rules than the rest of the school). The soap based product the company makes for use in the dispenser contains:
Water (Aqua) >60
Sodium Laureth Sulfate <10
Cocamidopropyl Betaine <10
Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate <10
PEG-80 Sorbitan Laurate <10
Propylene Glycol <10
Citric Acid <10
Polyquaternium-10 <10
Methylchloroisothiazolinone <10
Methylisothiazolinone <10

Can anyone tell me - is this basically soap or should I be telling preschool they can't use it and have to go back to bar soap?

Thanks in advance for your help
Kathryn

Hi Kathryn,

This looks like a fairly reasonable liquid soap formulation. The first four ingredients are surfactants commonly used in liquid hand soaps and shampoos.

Cheers,

Jane

Slightly higher chance of skin irritation than bar soap, other than that relatively harmless.

We have them also in every lab kitchens toilets and staff rooms.
I also make them put it on their Chemical stocktake as students use them.