Is hand sanitizer more effective than washing your hands?

I figure that it just pushes around the dirt on your hands and the chemical residue stays on your hands. What if you put your fingers in your mouth?Is hand sanitizer more effective than washing your hands?
washing your hands is better but if you cant wash your hands that second hand sanitizer is better than nothingIs hand sanitizer more effective than washing your hands?
No.





Washing your hands with soap throughly is the best way to remove germs and viruses from your hands.
Personally I refuse to use hand sanitizer. I was posted overseas with the military and the stuff was widely used when one couldn't wash hands. All the happened was the people started getting sick since the hand goop was not only killing the bad stuff but some of the bugs were getting resistant to it. Also, as you noted, since there was no place to wash all the hand sanitizer off people would eventually end up ingesting some of it and they were getting sick as it was taking out the good bacteria they needed in their systems.
theyre both the same, hand sanitizers is when you dont have a sink nearby / when your on the go!!!
no. When you use hand sanitizer that .1% of germs not included in the amount of germs it kills get stronger and make fighting sicknesses harder for your body. Those germs that survive become less responsive to the alcohol.
No. washing your hands is more effective then washing your hands because the friction from washing your hands is actually more effective then just the sanitizers chemicals.
It dries my hand out.I use it all the time for fear of catching some kind of sickness.And i'm pretty sure its intended to only kill the germ's that hang out on your hand's,but you would'nt want to chug about bottle of it!!.If your at home and have access to a sink that's the better bet!And moisturizer. -jade
I'm for washing hands.Hand sanitizer only comes in handy when you don't have access to water and soap.
f_u_c_k no, wash ur hands, hand sanitizer taste bad anyways, tried the finger thing once, nasty!
Well, hand sanitizer right when you rub it in, it sort of evaporates. When you wash your hands with hot water, and soap it gets more germs and bacteria off your hands so washing your hands is better. Using sanitizer is more effective with when you just sneezed, or cough - per say.
No.
DON'T USE HAND SANITIZER! what it does is it destorys most but not all of the germs- like handwashing. But then the germs build up a resistence to then antibiotics in the sanitizer the germs get bigger and you need more medicine and it takes more to fight of a cold.
no,did a think in my biology class and we let everything grow for a week ...used 5 fingers on one hand..one with soap, a finger with nothing, one with sanitizer and the one that has the least amount of germs was the nothing. but rubbing alcohol works best just dries out ur hands so make sure u use plenty of lotion when using the alcohol
I wash my hands a lot. Before and after I eat always, and a lot of times in between. I must say that the hand sanitizer doesn't feel as clean as washing. I'll wash my hands after I use the sanitizer, as soon as I can get the chance. The sanitizer works in a pinch, but I would rather wash. I don't see how it can be as clean, without washing and drying. I won't eat food with just sanitizer alone, I have to wash.
It isn't as good as soap and water,but better than not. It kills bacteria. Gues it makes the dirt cleaner.
Hand sanitizer is okay as long as you still wash your hands. It's good to us it and it works well to ';clean'; your hands but washing your hands with soap and water is better because it takes away dead skin and doesn't dry out hands as a lot of sanitizers do.
Hand sanitizer doesn't remove dirt--it kills germs. If your hands are really DIRTY then you probably need to wash them, but if that's not an option, the sanitizer is better than nothing.





As for what stays on your hands, part of the action of the sanitizer is alcohol, which dries and evaporates the antibacterial agents with it. The chemical residue that remains is aloe--won't hurt you, but putting your fingers in your mouth is a questionable behavior in any case. Why would you?





Proper hand washing technique removes dirt AND germs effectively. Proper use of hand sanitizer kills germs.





Use of antibacterial SOAPs, however, have not been shown to be effective, and in fact may do more harm them good.
It can be dangerous if you are holding young kids.