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Hand sanitizer for cleaning glassware?
Would the W.H.O.’s formula for hand sanitizer, given below, be O.K. to sanitize glass ware, as in bottles and jars for filling with lotion/creams?
I ask because I don’t know if the small amounts of glycerin &/or hydrogen peroxide that might be left behind would be a problem for lotions/creams I’d be pouring into the sanitized bottles/jars.
(A local distillery converted their booze-making into sanitizer-making in March 2020, and they’re stuck with LOTS of sanitizer, so I wish to buy some, to help them out)
Final concentrations:
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Ethanol 80% (v/v),
• Glycerol 1.45% (v/v),
• Hydrogen peroxide
0.125% (v/v) -
5 Replies
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That amount of hydrogen peroxide wouldn’t be an issue, especially if you leave it to air dry thoroughly. That really is a miniscule concentration of H2O2 as prescribed by WHO formulae 1 and 2 for hand rub mixtures. WHO even stipulate that it is not efficacious for disinfecting hands at that concentration, but can aid reduction of spores in otherwise unclean containers in developing countries (for which the hand rub guides were made).
Glycerine, however, would leave a bit of a residue.
The ethanol should be denatured, so it might be worth checking what it’s denatured with - there might be bitrex (denatonium benzoate) that could leave some bitter residues but people shouldn’t be eating the lotion anyway…Given all the above, and with it left to air-dry, it should be just fine for disinfecting glassware.
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Thanks for the comment, Benz3ne! I was 93% confident it would be fine, but there is SO much I don’t know, so I figured it best to see what others think.
What do you mean “shouldn’t be eating the lotion anyway…”. Don’t you know that GOOP stuff is all edible(?!), AND, you shouldn’t put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t ALSO eat (or some shit like that?)?!. ????
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Provided your preservative system is robust, you don’t need to sterilise packaging.
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My preservative system consists of Liquid Germall + at 0.5%, and for creams, I add phenoxyethanol at 0.5% as well.
I get my containers from retailers (re-packers?), NOT directly from the makers of the jar and bottles because I sure don’t need/want 100s at one time. So I figure it might be a good idea to sanitize, just in case.
I think Perry had commented, during his recent webinar with Phil Geis, that when he was working at P & G, they had a shipment of pumps from China that were all contaminated. Well, unfortunately, ALL of the glass jars & bottles I get are from China. I assume the pumps are as well (sigh).
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Couldn’t agree more with Belassi.
But if you really must do sterilize the packages (which are better ways to do it especially if they are made of glass), the amount of traces left on the surface will be very low to affect the product. Just make sure to dry the package very well.
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