Essay Example on How Effective are Hand Sanitizers Compared With Soap

How Effective are Hand Sanitizers Compared With Soap at Reducing Bacteria and Microbes For my project I decided to research about soap and water compared with hand sanitizer at reducing bacteria and microbes For my experiment I will use a petri and agar dish I will clean one very dirty spot with hand sanitizer get a q tip swab the spot I cleaned and rub it lightly into the petri and agar dish I will also do the same experiment again but use soap I will do multiple tests so I get a fair result It will take a couple of days but eventually microbes will start to grow in the dishes The one with more microbes will be determined as less effective as the other product I chose this project because of my mom and my cousin My mom had disagreed with my cousin when she said that hand sanitizers don't work That debate stuck in my head for a while and I chose to research and experiment to find out the truth There are many different types of hand sanitizers and soaps 

When grown they form in groups called colonies Most of them are still very small but big enough so we can see them There are many different types of bacteria good and bad For example some of the good bacteria is Lactobacillus Acidophilus Lactobacillus Rhamnosus Bacillus Coagulans Lactococcus Lactis and more livestrong com Some of the bad bacteria include Salmonella Norovirus Campylobacter E coli Listeria and more foodsafety gov Unfortunately when I grow microbes I will not be able to identify the microbes or if they are good or bad Soap Water vs Hand Sanitizer Which is more reliable Which is more effective at reducing bacteria and microbes Soap and water or hand sanitizer According to many sources washing with soap and water is more effective than hand sanitizers It is better if you put on hand sanitizer after you wash your hands with soap and water to get rid of any bacteria left on your hands Did you ever think though can hand sanitizers be bad According to thestreet com there are dangers Alcohol poisoning a weaker immune system toxic chemicals and more reasons you should be careful about using them all the time There are statements that say using hand sanitizers containing 60 alcohol or more have a higher chance of reducing more germs bacteria microbes than others http www berkeleywellness com Other ingredients could include water fragrance and glycerin www thestreet com If your hands have dirt on them hand sanitizers do not work very well at removing it cdc gov Soap and water can though 

The ingredients in most soap are as said in Soap Making Manual by E G Thomssen soap is made by combining a fat or oil with a water solution of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide Hypothesis and Variables My hypothesis is that cleaning with soap and water is more effective than cleaning with hand sanitizer I believe this is true because of all the scientific research that claims soap is more reliable It gets rid of germs and bacteria while the water removes the dirt Hand sanitizers kill bacteria but it may not clear out all of them For my independent variable I will change using soap and water to clean a dirty spot and then using hand sanitizer to clean a dirty spot For the dependent variables I will be observing the petri dishes and how many microbes are in each I will be measuring how much of the dirty spot I will be cleaning how long I will clean it and how much of the soap hand sanitizer I will use For my controlled variables I will be using the same brand of agar and the same kind of petri dish I will also choose one dirty spot for each test and clean half of it with soap and water and half of it with hand sanitizer Conclusion After I do my experiment I hope to be able to observe the results and write a fair conclusion I am looking forward to find out the truth How effective are hand sanitizers compared with soap at reducing bacteria and microbes