• Question: what do you think about dettol hand wash? e.g good or bad and why?

    Asked by nicole10 to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      It is good to wash your hands but not to get so obsessed by it, however dettol smells horrible, there are other more pleasant hand washes.

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Can’t comment on specific products..but handwashing is good to remove harmful bacteria from your skin which would otherwise maybe get into your mouth and cause disease

      btw 99.9% kill just means if you had 1000 bacteria it would kill 999 of them ..or if you had 1 million bacteria ..it would leave 1000 of them

      there are products i think are pointless ..but thats another story

    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hand washing is an essential part of keeping clean and preventing the spread of disease, but it’s all about scale. Are you sticking your hands in vats of nasty bacteria all the time?
      Every day tasks in the home don’t warrant more than a scrub with soap and water, something like Dettol handwash would rarely, if ever, be needed. In the lab we work with live bacteria all the time and, for the most part, hot water and soap is sufficient.

    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Nicole,

      I think it is good to follow some basic hygiene principles anyway. There is no need to become obsessive about it though. Washing your hands when you go into hospitals and especially in some wards with sick people is more important. So overall dettol hand wash is fine as is regular soap and water.

    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Well, I think all handwash (not just Dettol- other good handwashes are available) are generally a good thing to help maintain a good level of hygeine and reduce spread of infection. But people should not get hung up on using very fancy handwashes when hot water and soap is good as well.

Comments

  • Photo: Michael

    Michael commented on :

    ahh dettol semll..quick fact
    did you know the smell and the cloudiness has nothing to with killing bacteria…it used to but now the chemical used is much stronger and is colourless and odourless..
    but people will not buy dettol unless it smells that way and goes cloudy in water..a colourless odourless dettol just doesn’t seem right to them and wasn’t bought