Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Hand Sanitizer warning !

I got this just now from a respected Ringing colleague, it hails from the Maritime world Burning hazard.

Hot off the press Richard?

Very good David..

Also important to remember if wearing a wedding band or any other finger jewellery that the gel does not dry quickly underneath it. Whilst on a cruise in February, the continuous use of alcoholic sanitizing gel resulted in many passengers with red sore hands. No cure but alleviation by using a good moisturising cream. The fact we were in the Arctic Circle may also have been a contributory factor (dry cold skin).

Yes alcohol will do that & static is always a risk. Good to point it out though

I always wondered why I had dry skin. Now I know

I am surprised. One of the tricks you could do in the school chemi labs was to put ethyl alcohol over your hand and set fire to it. You had to make sure your hand was grease free first but if you did so you never got burned. You could actually pur a stream of molten lead on your hand with the same non result.

The hand sanitizer I make is isopropyl alcohol plus glycerine. I dont see that causing burns TBH but if it did the problem would be the gylcerene not the alcohol.

I am surprised. One of the tricks you could do in the school chemi labs was to put ethyl alcohol over your hand and set fire to it. You had to make sure your hand was grease free first but if you did so you never got burned. You could actually pur a stream of molten lead on your hand with the same non result.

The hand sanitizer I make is isopropyl alcohol plus glycerine. I dont see that causing burns TBH but if it did the problem would be the gylcerene not the alcohol.

Anyway its just an H&S warning. The guy writing it obviously hasnt been told that the human body is itself flammable thanks to its fat content, or he would be warning about that.

In the lab in our steelworks one method of testing the carbon content involved collecting the CO2 from burning a sample in oxygen. The solute was benzene based. At the end of the day the chemists burned the waste. Usually in an outside rough ground area. Quite a volatile and inflammable liquid! Some “experimental” burning methods were tried, often spectacular.
The best I saw was getting the vapour to go boom! No boom until a flame/ spark was introduced then a decent flash/explosion.
Vapour in sufficient concentration+oxygen+plus spark was the combination.
Re the body fat content. A couple of technicians I knew did servicing of a crematorium oven. They had to clean some parts due to the build up of body fat products of combustion.
In the early days of Covid hand washing my knuckles used to get dry/crack. Moisturiser sorted it.

I left a 5 litre plastic container of methanol in the back of my car on a very hot day and nothing happened?

Arwyn