Hello, beauties! We’ve been talking about nothing else on the news these days. The spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is now the focus of discussion and is causing a lot of concern. In just a few months, it has spread throughout the world, recording an increase in the number of infected and even deaths. However, the situation has also become much worse also in Europe. People’s concern has led them to storm supermarkets to buy not only food but, above all, items for personal hygiene such as cleansing wipes and sanitizer gels. WHO published a recipe for homemade hand sanitizer with few ingredients. I decided to share it to help spread it.
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Gabi
WHO- recommended Handrub Formulations
The news of the spread of the virus began to bounce in all newspapers. Shortly, the supermarkets were stormed with the running out of long-term food and hygiene products. Same situation in pharmacies where masks and sanitizing gels were sold within minutes.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has for a long time published a guideline for the self-production of sanitizing solutions. The aim was to help populations and regions of the world where water and hygiene shortages contributed to the rapid expansion of viruses and infectious diseases. The same procedure has therefore also been widespread in this new global health crisis to help people prevent contagion. Here to have a look at the document.
Homemade Hand Sanitiser
DIY Hand sanitiser: ingredients
The recipe proposed by the world health organisation uses only 4 ingredients that we will probably already have at home.
For 100g of hand sanitiser:
- 67.5g (2.4 Oz) Ethanol 96%
- 4g (0.14 Oz) Hydrogen peroxide 3%
- 2g (0.07 Oz) Glycerol 98%
- 11g (0.39 Oz) Sterile distilled or boiled cold water
DIY Hand sanitiser: role of each ingredient
Ethyl alcohol at 96% is commonly used to prepare liqueurs at home. This alcohol to perform disinfectant functions must be in concentrations between 60-80%. For this reason, it must be diluted with distilled water (free of any bacterial contamination).
The hydrogen peroxide has the function to eliminate the presence of any spores or bacteria contained in the solution or container. It is, therefore, not involved in the hand disinfection process.
Glycerol (or glycerine) is used as a wetting agent to reduce the intrinsic dehydrating effect of alcohol.
Homemade Hand Sanitiser | Procedure
The procedure is very simple.
- weigh the alcohol in a glass container,
- pour hydrogen peroxide
- and glycerin.
- Increase to 100 g with distilled water.
Finally, leave the solution for at least 72 hours at rest so that all the ingredients are well amalgamated.
Considerations
This very simple recipe will allow you to create your sanitising gel with only a few ingredients and in complete safety.
In any case, if you cannot use water and soap to wash your hand, choose products with alcohol in concentration between 60-80%.
I do not recommend replacing ethyl alcohol with the common denatured alcohol used for household cleaning. This because it may contain substances not suitable for skin contact. Otherwise, the substitution of ethyl alcohol with isopropanol is accepted. Here are the quantities provided by the WHO for a 10L solution.
- Isopropyl alcohol 99.8%: 7515ml
- Hydrogen peroxide 3%: 417ml
- Glycerol 98%: 145ml
- Distilled water: 1923ml
Obviously, with the right proportions, you can create it in smaller quantities. If you need to know the quantities, for example, for 100 or 200g leave me a comment and I will write them down.
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Gabi
Seams to be quite a simple n easy idea. Thanks for the post!
I might try this because nothing else is helping.
Definitely going to try this! Perfect timing with all the viruses going around!
I will have to try making my own. With the corona virus scare, I am afraid that ethyl alcohol may be out of stock too. I will buy some while I can and make my own hand sanitizer for my family to use.
Perfect Sani recipe for this season! I think I have all this on hand too. Can you give the ratio for 250 ml please and thank you!!
It seems so easy! Thanks for the recipe x
Sure. I normally use grams instead of working with volumes. In this case for 250g will be:
• 168,75 g Ethanol 96%
• 10g Hydrogen peroxide 3%
• 5g Glycerol 98%
• 27,5g Sterile distilled or boiled cold water
This is such a great post. I can’t get hand sanitiser anywhere (just like most people just now) so I will have a go at making my own, thank you for sharing!