Hand-Washing Vs. Hand Sanitizer

Two University of Pittsburgh at Bradford students presented a paper on the effectiveness of hand-washing versus hand sanitizer at the national meeting of the American Chemistry Society in Anaheim, Calif.

Joshua Flowers, a chemistry and chemistry education major from New Columbia, and Yvon Woappi, a biology major from Hanover, conducted the research in the fall of 2009, during the height of concern about H1N1 flu virus.

The paper, titled “Effects of Hand Sanitizer vs. Soap on Hand Bacteria Density Amongst Undergraduate Students,” has also been selected to be presented at the Penn State Behrend Sigma Xi 20th Annual Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Accomplishment Conference April 16.

The students conducted the research as a project for the Pitt-Bradford Bio-Chem Club, enlisting the supervision of Dr. Om Singh, assistant professor of biology.

The students gave questionnaires to and swabbed hands of 13 percent of the student body. Questions on the survey asked students about how often they washed their hands and used hand sanitizer (which had recently been installed in each building on campus to inhibit the spread of H1N1). The survey also asked students to identify their gender, ethnicity, age, whether they were commuter students, whether they were in-state students and their major.

In general, the students found that washing with hand soap alone was only approximately 20 percent efficient against hand bacterial growth, just using hand sanitizer was approximately 71 percent efficient, but using both was more than 97 percent efficient against hand bacterial growth.

Woappi said there were some other interesting trends. For example, science majors were dirtier than nonscience majors, and commuter students tended to be cleaner than residential students.

The students presented their findings to campus Wednesday at an event sponsored by the Bio-Chem Club. Flowers, Woappi and others will also be presenting their research at Pitt-Bradford Honors Day from 1 to 4:15 p.m. Friday in the Frame-Westerberg Commons. The hand-washing study will be among the poster displays that can be viewed from 1:15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Dining Rooms A & B.