The hospital where I used to work kept tabs on personnel use of hand sanitizers. They encouraged us to clean our hands before and after entering patient rooms to minimize disease transmission. These alcohol-based sanitizers were advertised as an ideal alternative to frequent hand-washing; no more dry hands and hand-washing eczema! For every five to seven times we used the hand sanitizer, we were instructed to wash our hands, to clean off the grime residue of the gel.

Of course, we all know that hand washing with soap and water is the only means to eliminate C. difficile, the badness responsible for super-foul diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis.

I hated using the alcohol sanitizers. It left a sticky residue on my fingers that did not instill the feeling of cleaniness. I only used it as an intermediary agent when I could not reach a sink in the vicinity.

It was only when I returned to NYC that this slimy waterless cleaning agent became useful, not in the hospital but in the city. On a busy day, I travel via subway at least twice daily, and exchange services with weather-beaten NYC cash (many vendors do not accept credit). One can only imagine how filthy subway handrails and doors are. I once witnessed a guy scratching his unspeakable bodily areas and then gripped the subway pole. Another guy wiped orange duck sauce from his take-out food onto the subway seat. Having Purell in the subway could never hurt.

Yesterday I prided myself for bringing Purell on my trip around the city for errands. As I was waiting for Sunny, the local falafel vendor, to prepare my lunch, I witnessed a sight no amount of hand sanitizer could cleanse. The vendor loaded my falafel using the same gloved hand he handled my cash in. So much for wearing gloves.

Sunny may never get my business again…

medicine medicine