Can you safely use alternative disinfectant substitutes? Our guide outlines what you can and can’t do with alternatives to keep your health safe.
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Are disinfectants necessary to protect me from viruses? Complete protection is impossible with or without disinfectant. In addition, it is usually sufficient to wash your hands thoroughly with water and soap to kill and rinse off most of all viruses, bacteria and germs.
Do alternative disinfectant substitutes last long? Due to the evaporation of contained alcohol compounds, the effectiveness of disinfectants decreases significantly over time. Nevertheless, even after the expiry date, the means are generally not completely ineffective. They are therefore ideally suited as an emergency solution.
Can I make alternative disinfectants myself? The possibility exists, but it is risky. In addition, this idea is not suitable for cost reasons, as the individual components are usually significantly more expensive than finished mixtures.
Disinfectants protect us from dangerous viruses and bacteria. Manufacturers rely on various means of hand or surface disinfection. However, the appropriate disinfectants are not always available, so we would like to introduce some alternative disinfectants in our article. You will also learn to what extent hand washing is sufficient and how they can otherwise protect themselves from viruses, bacteria and germs.
1. Protecting your health with disinfectants
Disinfectants have long led to a shadowy existence. In many places, such as hospitals or public toilets, there was already the possibility of disinfecting their hands, but comparatively few people resorted to it.
However, at the latest since the outbreak of the coronavirus (SARS-COV-2 or Covid-19), the situation has changed, so that disinfectants were temporarily sold out.
However, disinfection gels and sprays not only help against a specific virus, but also kill most of all viruses, bacteria and germs. However, make sure that the products are labeled as disinfectants. For example, fungicide or bactericidal substances do not provide protection against viruses.
As a rule, the manufacturers of disinfectant sprays and other disinfectants rely on ethanol or propane as the basis. Often, these two high-percentage alcohols are mixed.
2. Use alternative disinfectant substitutes
Good to know: By the way, you can also make soap yourself. You can find out more in our separate article. Although it would be nice if disinfectants could protect health from all dangers, this is unfortunately a fallacy. Disinfectants are more in place to kill viruses and bacteria when no other agent is currently available.
On the other hand, it is much easier if you use water and soap for hand disinfection. When washing your hands, make sure that you reach all areas. It takes about 20 seconds to wash most of all viruses and bacteria off the skin.
The soap molecules contained in the soap cause viruses to be destroyed. With water, simply rinse them off. This great advantage of rinsing is eliminated if you use disinfectants. Therefore, if possible, always wash your hands instead of disinfecting with a virucidal.
Tip: To avoid straining your hands too much when washing, it is best to use pH-neutral soaps without dyes, fragrances and preservatives.
Even high-percentage alcohol can be used as an alternative disinfectant in an emergency. However, if you are on the move and do not have the opportunity to wash your hands with water and soap, you can either use ready-made disinfectants or try alternative disinfectants as an emergency solution.
Possible alternative disinfectants include the following products:
- high-percentage spirits: The alcohol content should be at least 62% in order to actually be able to cause a bit of damage to viruses. For disinfection, you can use absinthe or straw rum, for example.
- Medicinal products: Melissengeist is considered for disinfection due to its alcohol content of more than 62%. However, the remedy is comparatively expensive, so you should use classic disinfectants if possible.
Please do not try your own recipe. Even if you usually get the necessary ingredients in the pharmacy, they are usually very expensive and the mixing process is very risky.
Attention: Alternative disinfectants should only be an emergency solution. With regular use, the skin dries out very strongly.
If you still don’t want to be deterred, see how you could mix an alternative disinfectant:
3. Store disinfectant properly
Disinfectants are designed to protect us from dangerous germs, viruses and bacteria. However, this is only possible if they are stored correctly. Although high-percentage alcohol does not in itself have an expiry date,they evaporate over time, so that the effect decreases. This process is significantly accelerated when you leave a bottle of disinfectants open.
Another factor that contributes to significantly lower durability is heat. Therefore, never leave a disinfectant in the hot car in summer,even if it is very convenient to disinfect your hands in the car.
Attention: Disinfectants for spraying are under high pressure, so that temperatures of about 50 degrees are already sufficient to massively increase the risk of explosion. Therefore, it is best to use liquid silasty or disinfectant wipes in the vehicle.
