Flammable hand sanitizer

Just use rubbing alcohol as hand sanitizer. You don't need the added gelatin, that's just marketing.

The alcohol is what kills germs. The other stuff is just to make it into a jelly

I found a 2 ounce, 59ml container of "Pure Formula Hand Santitizer" at the small-sample section of a local drugstore. I got it as sanitizer / firestarter for a family snow-camping/ski-in trip next week. I just tested it and it lit right off. The label says 62% ethyl alcohol. $1.19 I think. I wouldn't use "Citrus Grove Scent" in summer, but most of the bears are sleeping now.

I like Nick's suggstion and I may well refill the container with isopropyl (cheaper and I've got plenty) although I like the non-toxicity of ethanol. The gel aspect was conveneint because the little blob stay in one place as it burned.

I'll try some experiments with isopropyl and gelatin when the time comes to refill it.

A little salt will disolve the gel. The remaining puddle will be the alcohol which will light.

I tried that with Purell once, just to find out whether or not it would work, and it did light — though I was also experimenting with a ferrocerium firestarter as well, so it took a few tries. A match worked fine, as did the Soto mini-torch that one the other campers on the trip had.

Esbit – scrape the tab with your finger nail or a small knife to create a few tiny crumbs, it will light easily unless the wind is howling.

I never understood why people use hand sanitizer. Soap works well. Sanitizer kills all the germs which may not be good for our immune system. Or so it seems to me.

"Soap works well."

Soap works well, but only if you have water.

The whole point of ethanol-based hand sanitizer gel is that you can use it anywhere without the need for water.

–B.G.–

"Soap works well, but only if you have water."

Agree.

But if I am backpacking and don't have even a little water to wash my hands, especially after toilet work, I probably have a much bigger problem than dirty hands.

"But if I am backpacking and don't have even a little water to wash my hands, especially after toilet work…"

You can join the ranks of the unemployed.

–B.G.–

put it on some paper or cotton … and you can light it with a firesteel …dont use too much

My understanding is that soap does not kill bacteria – it loosens the dirt. It is the soapy water and rinsing water that carries the loosened dirt/bacteria away, if you have enough water to rinse it all away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_washing

>"soap does not kill bacteria "

Paul,

True. Unless it is an anti-microbal soap. And even then – look what surgeons go through when they scrub.

Consider what is done on GCNP float trips. Many people, in a narrow corridor, unsupported for 10 to 16 days at a time with rescue limited and extremely expensive.

You set up a hand-wash station with foot pumped water and soap AND then hand sanitizer. You set up the station so you can't avoid it after using the "groover" (rocket box edges leave grooves on your butt).

Doesn't sanitizer also kill the "good" germs. Germs we need for our immune systems?

Yes, we want surgeons to get rid of all germs.

I have never gotten a serious illness in over 60 years and have never used hand sanitizer. I get the flu once in a while (not every year), and I rarely get a cold. I do wash with soap as needed and probably less than most would recommend.

Too much of this is American paranoia, IMO. Not to mention that the hand sanitizer business now rakes in over $100 billion per year.

"The whole point of ethanol-based hand sanitizer gel is that you can use it anywhere without the need for water."

And leaves not even a trace amount of pollutants in the soil. Or stream/lake if one is careless.

Most anti-microbial soap uses triclosan or triclocarban but based off the hand washing patterns of American's, the active ingredients are not on your skin long enough to be effective. The only proven effective use of TCS and TCC is in toothpaste. So basically you're paying for a chemical which doesn't even work. On top of that TCC has a half-life in aerobic soil environments of several months (80 to over 200 days depending on the literature). So as a whole you should avoid anti-microbial soaps from a LNT perspective (this doesn't even include potential carcinogenic characteristics…).

So that's why we use alcohol hand sanitizers. Of course they do dry out your skin which can be miserable when your hands are chapped and start to bleed. Particularly of issue, I guess, above treeline and in my deserts.

So yeah, a small dab of standard soap like dr. bronners seems to go a long way. I usually use a mouthful to wet and another to rinse so my water usage is minimal.

For disinfecting, UV rays scramble microbe dna so air drying your hands and leaving them exposed to the Sun probably works pretty darn effectively. The reason we use soap is to remove the dirt which protects the microbes from the UV rays.

Alcohol vapors, not the liquid, catch flame. So using gel slows down the vaporization a bit which depending on your use may be a benefit or a hindrance…but probably not noticeable from standard alcohol.