What Happens To All The Dead Germs When You Use Hand Sanitizer?
24 April 2019, 15:45 | Updated: 24 April 2019, 16:45
Question: What happens to all the dead germs when we use hand sanitizer?
Name: Professor Hal, Brighton
Qualification: Professor of Public Understanding of Science, Brighton University
Answer: Dead germs fall of your body in the same way that dead skin does. Your skin turns over every 28 days which is why you lose your suntan.
When you wipe your hands with hand sanitizer, it kills the germs. Then the alcohol in the hand sanitizer evaporates and then germs leave your body and becomes house dust.
The dust in your house is 90% human skin, bacteria and flakes of dandruff. It all gets cleaned up. Dead germs are smaller than skin cells. Some will stay airborne and we’ll breathe them in, but the mucus in your nose exists to catch them.
