HYGIENE 61
for thickening a water/alcohol solution — the two simple water/alcohol formulas above will be water thin and easily sprayable.
Sourcing of materials, and notes of caution Boiling is the easiest and most likely source of sterile water — just be careful of heating and boiling water near the high proof, flammable alcohol. There are a few sources of
ethanol. One important note: the ethanol must be denatured; made to taste bad to avoid consumption. While states are relaxing cocktails to-go, your hand sanitiser is not to be consumed.
Mixing your hand sanitiser: putting it all together This is pretty straightforward, with one caveat: passivation. If you are using a glass or fiberglass vessel to mix your hand sanitiser, then passivation is not a concern. However, if you are using a metal vessel, you will need to be aware that, in the presence of metal ions from the vessel, the hydrogen peroxide (H2
02 ) rapidly breaks
down to water and oxygen. Using glass equipment can avoid this issue.
Packing options Ensuring that the alcohol evaporation is limited between production and use is an important consideration. The packaging must seal sufficiently. Manual pumps are explicitly allowed in the FDA guidance.
Options for natural alternatives Ethanol is a natural product. There are natural antimicrobials; however, efficacy data on them is limited, and more importantly, hand sanitisers are a regulated product. In order to label and market a product as a hand
sanitiser, the FDA guidelines must be met.
Skin safety and dealing with allergies Hand sanitisers are likely better for the skin barrier than repeated washing with soap. Cleansing with soap often removes skin components and can disrupt the natural structure of the skin. In contrast, after killing bugs on your skin, the alcohol in hand sanitisers rapidly evaporates and has little impact on the skin barrier. The core of your hand sanitiser formula should therefore not cause any skin problems — fragrance is often the source of skin irritation, especially allergenic response.
Testing Many problems are solved if you are following the FDA guidance on hand sanitisers and there is no need to test the bug-killing efficacy of your formula. Hand sanitisers with the formulas outlined above are well proven to effectively kill bugs and be safe for the user. You will simply need to check that after production, the alcohol level — ethanol or isopropyl alcohol — is checked by physical chemistry means such as alcoholmeter or hydrometer.
Conclusion Hand sanitisers are an important weapon in the fight against viruses, and have become a popular choice for start-ups to start manufacturing. With recent rule changes, it is now easy to begin formulation and manufacture of alcohol-based hand sanitisers. Follow the new rules from the FDA and you can quickly start producing hand sanitisers.
PC
Note: Previously a Research Fellow at J&J, Dr Russel Walters has developed skin care technologies that were launched into dozens of products and 100s of SKUs. He is a prolific inventor with 20+ US patents and is an active researcher with 35+ scientific articles. He is now a freelance Chemical and Biochemical engineering expert with Kolabtree.
Hair Care
www.floratech.com ®
August 2020
sales@floratech.com PERSONAL CARE GLOBAL
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