Hand Sanitizers: My Journey Towards Discovering Best Practices for Wilderness Hygiene

[Walter Underwood]

You don't need alcohol sanitizer for a first aid sterilizer, BAK works fine. That is the active ingredient in Bactine.

If you need lots of sterile wash, overdose some water with purification chemicals (tablets or Aqua Mira) so there is excess sterilizer available.

Also, don't eat with your hands. Be really careful about touching food — use a clean spoon or knife whenever you can.

FInally, learn to keep your fingers clean. For example, spread on sunscreen and insect repellent with the back of your hand, not your fingers. Don't drop your gear in the dirt so you won't be handling dirty gear. And so on.

Oh, and Dr. Bronners turns into gel in the cold. Not my favorite. I'm a Biosuds guy.

[John Murtiashaw]

When I interned at Baxter State Park, I remember the rangers telling us that hand sani only "piXXed off" the bacteria. I use it all the time in tha woods tho, and at music festivals where there's no running water (at least until I can spring for the VIP tix). When I did wilderness therapy, we gave out sani all day but did a solid hand washing every night, but for that you need at least two people and some kind of water jug, a cook pot would work. When the little kids would really screw up at the wag bag I'd make d— sure soap and water was in play, a bleached nail brush too. Nothing like a chemical reaction to get ya clean n godly.
PS no profanity on the message boards? wtf are we like, 6? if you're old enough to pay with a credit card I don't think you will be offended by some strong words.

[Mitchell Keil]

No, we are not 6. One would expect "potty mouth" behavior from 6 year olds. We are adults, most of us, and as such don't feel the need to sprinkle profanity liberally throughout a post. One can communicate clearly, effectively and with respect for each other without it. When we disagree, which happens often enough on BPL issues, we find a way to do so without making the "other" feel badly. The object here on this site is to learn from each other, teach each other and have fun sharing good times and bad times on the trail with our gear. When we are on the trail I would assume most of us find profanity useful at times. When we are sitting at our computers in our homes or offices writing a post, we exercise a certain level of consideration for the rest of the BPL community not knowing who enjoys a little profanity and who does not.

[John Murtiashaw]

Mitchell!!! Cool down my eloquent homeboy, I wasn't advocating that you cuss up a storm, I just think if I fork over 20 bones for ninety down jacket articles I should be able to say what I please. Now go get your bedford handbook and post a reply.

[Bob Gross]

John, you didn't read the terms and conditions that you agreed to when you subscribed here.

–B.G.–

[Mary D]

And there are youngsters reading on these boards. Need to keep it family-friendly!

[Mitchell Keil]

Last Comment on the subject.

I don't need a Bedford Handbook to reply. I value and treasure the English language and make a practice of using it with skill and style every day — even in a post.

We get members like you ocassionally. They last a while then drift off to some other interests they may have, or they adjust to our community and get into the spirit of things. I hope you do — adjust that is. Meanwhile, Bob's comment that you may need to go back and read what you agreed to when you signed up for this site with your "20 bones" is a good suggestion.

[mark wuethrich]

I've had to deal with the cracked hands a lot from crack climbing at T Wall in the winter. Solution: chapstick, blistex worked best for me, just rub it over the cracks and you're good to go

[Craig]

er, back on topic.

I gather this means that a good soap and water wash is often better. Beauty!

I've often wondered why any of us gram watchers (aren't we all on this site) would even contemplate taking gel instead of just plain simple soap leaves that are readily available at any outdoor shop. As long as you have water to use, it is lighter to take leaves. You get about 50 in a packet, and re-pack, say 10-20 in an XXS snap lock bag for any trip (overnight needs even less) and they weigh almost nothing (the biggest weight is the small pill sized snap lock bag itself, at about 1g)! Now it seems the tech data supports it also, so I can feel relaxed about it at the same time.

Craig

[Greg Mihalik]

"…plain simple soap leaves that are readily available at any outdoor shop.."

I tried them. I didn't like them.

Getting the first one out is easy. Getting the second one out with wet fingers can result in one drop of water saturating the rest of the "leaves" and solidifying them.

And if you get out several before hand, they are light enough to waft away on a breeze.

If you are doing more than just a hand wash you will go through them fast.

Liquid soap, although heavier, is much easier to dispense, spread, and use.

IMHO.

[spelt with a t]

Glad to see this get a mention. I use hospital grade wipes. I'll have to give the spray a try.

[Greg Mihalik]

All quotes from Wiki:

"As with any disinfectant, it is recommended that surfaces are free from visible dirt.", which, I assume means all the crud in cracks and under nails.

"…benzalkonium chloride… Solutions are incompatible with soaps, and must not be mixed with anionic surfactants."

So hands need to be "visibly clean", and if soap is used, well rinsed.

A good product for a "clean" environment, but attention is needed after Day 2 of the trip, IMHO.

[spelt with a t]

The same is true of alcohol sanitizers, which are also disrupted by soap and diluted by water, as well as being less effective when visible dirt is present.

[Walter Carrington]

BAK, Benzalkonium Chloride, is a known cause of asthma. That is, it can cause asthma in individuals that did not previously have asthma.

It is also not a safe chemical to use in the presence of asthmatics. It would be an especially bad idea to use it on a group trip; even low concentrations could cause severe problems for sensitized individuals.

http://www.occupationalasthma.com/occupational_asthma_causative_agent.aspx?id=124

Use soap and water.

[Steven McAllister]

Lets face it, hand sanitizers are poison. They work by killing living organisms, good and bad.

If you put these poisons on your hand and then scratch mucous membranes, nose, eyes, lips, … you can be causing irritation and killing off good organisms that could be fighting off infection.

Plus, hand sanitizers stink and/or leave some kind of disgusting slime on your hands and they don't really clean very well.

So as you know, a good washing with water is my choice.

[John S.]

And chlorine dioxide is a poison too so maybe we should stop using it.

[Hikin’ Jim]

So, how harmful is soap rinsed off my hands to the wilderness? I'm a little worried, even if I'm far from water sources, that I'm somehow polluting if I use regular soap bars in the wilderness.

HJ

P.S. Adjunct question: is biodegradable "Camp Suds" type soap any better for the environment than everyday soap bars?

[Steven McAllister]

Camp suds is just soap.
Soap isn't any were near as bad as detergent based hand cleaners and as long as you rinse away from any body of water should be fine.

Soap also has the advantage of cleaning your hands which is more effective than sterilizing with hand sanitizers.

[Mark Behringer]

Soap is a surfactant. It causes the stuff clinging to your skin to let go so it can be rinsed away. Make foam and rinse it and you're clean. I use a cut-down gallon milk jug as a good little sink when I've set up camp. Not recommended for boiling water, though. A little nailbrush is helpful. Dig a small cathole for the used water and remember to stay as far from any water source as possible.

On the trail, alky handwash and/or antimicrobial wipes (unscented, please!) work well. Keep a spare plastic bag to drop the used wipes into – the hand wipes, not the ones for the other end. (Although if you can't burn your TP at the moment you could pack it along until you get the chance. I prefer to drop a match into the cathole. There are some odors that NEVER come out of a backpack – please, don't ask.)

I can't remember where I saw it, maybe in 'Father' Jardine's writings, but someone cut down a bar of Ivory soap and calls it their 'Ivo' bar. Light, cheap and efficient. I've also seen an article about using a food processor to shred bar soap and mixing it with water to make a liquid soap.

I carry a one or two ounce Nalgene HDPE bottle full of Dr, Bronner's Peppermint. In hot water and applied with a bandanna or washcloth, it helps soothe sore muscles at the end of the day. I also keep a small bottle of Listerine (or the cheaper store brand) in the first aid kit since that kills everything it touches, even athletes foot. Use it to cleanse an area before you put on a bandage or moleskin. Or kill morning mouth.

I've tried the Sea to Summit soap slices and they work OK but they're pricy and a little water in the package makes a mess. I might try going at my Ivo bar with a carrot peeler!

Anybody remember CampSuds? That worked well but I haven't seen it in a while.

Anyway, this is an excellent article (and website)and the comments are by and large very good. Swearing is what I do when I am too lazy or angry to think of better words. Some a**hole told me that a long time ago…probably my dad.

I agree that the illegal immigrant metaphor is lame. Maybe you could have used something along the lines of "cleaning the knife you've used to fillet a brookie before spreading peanut butter on a bagel the next morning". Again, please don't ask…

Hope to see you all on the trails soon,

StovieRay

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