Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.German researchers have found the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers keep employees healthier and more productive.
The study is published in the August 24 online edition of the journal BMC Infectious Diseases.
Nils-Olaf Hübner, MD at the Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald in Germany, led a team of researchers evaluated 129 employees rate of "absenteeism" and discovered the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers "significantly reduced" bouts of the "common cold, fever and cough."
"Our study found that hand disinfection reduced the number of episodes of illness for the majority of the investigated symptoms," noted Hübner. To select the healthiest green hand sanitizers look for those that are alcohol-based as they do not contain triclocarban or triclosan.
The Environmental Working Goup's (EWG) cosmetic safety database Skin Deep has vetted a number of fragrance-free hand sanitizers and has ranked them based on health risks (cancer, allergies, immunotoxicity, developmental/reproductive toxicity, and other) including a risk assessment for each ingredient and notes on "data gaps" or unknowns due to insufficient toxicology reports and/or deficient government and cosmetic companies' assessments.
Top ranking products include Purple Prairie Botanicals Hand Sanitizer ($1.99-9.99/€1.56-7.86) and Healing-Scents Germs Goodbye Hand Sanitizer ($3.75-9.50/€2.95-7.47). To view the complete list of 83 hand cleansing and sanitizing products go to: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/browse.php?category=%20hand+sanitizer¬containing=702512,706623,%20706622
Full study, "Effectiveness of alcohol-based hand disinfectants in a public administration: Impact on health and work performance related to acute respiratory symptoms and diarrhoea": http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinfectdis/
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments