If you want to avoid the transmission of disease, including the novel coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends washing your hands and avoid touching your face. However, if you don’t have access to soap and water, the next best thing is using hand sanitizer.

If you can’t find any, you’re not alone. Hand sanitizers are becoming impossible to find, with increasing awareness about the coronavirus. (A quick search discovers that most pocket-sized dispensers and wipes listed as unavailable on Amazon.)

However, you can make your own — and it’s pretty easy. This recipe is from Dr. Helmenstine, a Chemistry Expert with a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Hand Sanitizer DIY

• 2/3 cup 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol)
• 1/3 cup aloe vera gel
• funnel
• bottle

** As with any product containing rubbing alcohol, it is harmful if ingested. Do not leave any hand sanitizer accessible to children in an unsupervised setting.

How It Works

Alcohol is the active ingredient in this hand sanitizer recipe. It needs to comprise at least 60% alcohol in order to be an effective disinfectant.

Recipes may differ a little (some recommend adding a scented oil while others keep that step optional). There is general agreement that:

• Hand sanitizer needs to have a strength of at least 60 percent isopropyl alcohol to be effective. Since you’re going to have to mix your sanitizer with aloe vera gel in order to stabilize it and protect your hands, most suggest that the mixture contain at least two-thirds 99 percent isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and one-third gel. (You can ignore the occasional suggestion to use vodka instead — a lot of vodkas are only 40 percent alcohol, and why waste good vodka?)
• Hand sanitizer is only effective if you cover your hands and then let it dry. Squirting a few drops into your palms and then wiping your hands isn’t going to cut it.
• According to the CDC, a hand sanitizer isn’t going to do much if your hands are heavily soiled.

Your phone is another often overlooked “high-touch surface”.  Remember to periodically use alcohol wipes to clean it off.

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Since handwashing is the best line of defense, I created these posters for the classroom, workplace, restroom, or even home! Just click on the picture to grab a set.

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