Glossary: W
What is the difference between hand & surface disinfection?
Both surface disinfectants and hand disinfectants are used to destroy harmful viruses, bacteria, fungi and spores. Therefore, many users ask themselves whether they can also use a product for surfaces to disinfect hands (or vice versa).
In fact, this is not recommended because the disinfectants do not bear their names without reason. They should only be used for the purpose for which they are specifically intended.
Medical disinfectants for hands are supposed to kill harmful germs on the skin within 30 to 90 seconds. Complete virucidal efficacy is only achieved by products that eliminate enveloped and non-enveloped viruses. Most available preparations use alcohol (e.g., isopropanol) or iodine-containing compounds for a rapid effect. Additional remanence agents such as chlorhexidine or octenidine ensure that the treated skin area remains germ-free for a longer period even after the fast-acting agents have vaporised. Surfactants are added to enable optimal mixing of the different substances.
Since these ingredients can dry out and irritate the skin especially during frequent hand disinfection most of the skin and hand disinfectants contain additional moisturising substances such as fatty acid esters or fatty alcohols. Also, some skin disinfectants contain perfume or dyes. All these substances can leave damage and marks especially on alcohol sensitive surfaces and should not be used to disinfect surfaces.
Medical surface disinfectants are often much stronger than skin disinfectants because most surfaces are much less sensitive than human skin. This is especially true for concentrates for surface disinfection, which can be thinned or used pure. When working with these aggressive preparations even protective gloves must be worn - inhaling the vapours of concentrated surface disinfectants must be avoided at all costs. Concentrates for surface disinfection should never get on the skin or mucous membranes.
Even ready-to-use solutions for surface disinfection with lower concentrations are not recommended for skin disinfection. Since these preparations are intended for surfaces, they do not contain any refatting substances to protect the skin from drying out.
