They created a waterless hand cleaner used by workers in rubber plant factories. In , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC revised its guidelines to allow alcohol based hand sanitizers as a way to clean hands and eliminate germs in the absence of soap and water, In the World Health Organization also recommended them as an alternative to soap and water.
Hand sanitizers typically contain anywhere from 60 — 95 percent isopropyl or ethyl alcohol mixed with water and gels such as glycerin. The Food and Drug Administration FDA allows a product to be called a hand sanitizer if it contains ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol or bensalkonium as the active ingredient. Alcohol breaks down disease causing bacteria and viruses. Throughout the s, hospitals around the world started the widespread practice of placing hand sanitizer pumps throughout medical facilities.
And in , the World Health Organization followed suit, when Swiss epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert Dr. Didier Pittet wrote new WHO guidelines promoting the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer among health care professionals, especially those in resource-poor countries with limited access to clean water.
That year also happens to be when consumer sales of hand sanitizer first spiked in the wake of the H1N1 swine flu that infected more than 60 million people just in the U. Today, U. For the average American consumer, who hopefully doesn't have to worry about finding clean water and soap, and isn't facing a time crunch that an emergency room doctor might have to deal with, hand sanitizer is an attractive option, especially now, for on-the-go situations where they might not be able to duck into a bathroom to wash their hands.
Hand sanitizer is a good alternative for hand-washing in those situations," Dr. Even hand sanitizer isn't without some controversy, though. As Americans have scoured store shelves in search of hand sanitizer and other disinfectants in recent weeks, Purell-maker Gojo has come under fire from health officials.
In January, the U. Food and Drug Administration sent a letter warning Gojo against making any unsubstantiated health claims about the company's hand sanitizer products. The FDA cited various Purell advertisements claiming the product kills " And in response to the FDA's letter, the company issued a statement noting that it has started "updating relevant website and other digital content as directed by the FDA and are taking steps to prevent a recurrence.
Still, the FDA's concerns don't seem to have put a damper on consumers' desire for more hand sanitizer as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread. Stores across the country continue to report shortages of the products, leading many concerned people to look for ways to make their own homemade versions. They first developed a product called GOJO Hand Cleaner, which is that industrial orange-smelling stuff you still see in auto repair shops and other places where people get grease on them.
It is a cleaner, not a sanitizer, and based with petroleum. Jerry Lippman patented a few dispensers over the next couple of decades. In , thanks to the oil embargo, the price of the raw materials required by GOJO Hand Cleaner spiked, and the company began looking into other possibilities. The origin of this claim appears to be a article in The Guardian ; all other mentions of Lupe Hernandez came after that article and provide no other information. Facts about Lupe Hernandez are nonexistent: no patent under that name was filed, nor was any hand-sanitizer-related patent under any other name for a decade on either side.
There had been alcohol-based hand sanitizers prior to Purell; in Germany, a product called Sterillium was invented in But without that thickener, alcohol-based hand sanitizers were messy and annoying.
The product was launched to the consumer market in —before then, it was used internally and by a few businesses for themselves—and slowly began picking up steam. Wegmans, the beloved upstate New York supermarket chain, was an early purchaser.
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