Hand sanitizer and the burnt hands
?“Woman uses hand sanitiser on arms, and accidentally sets limbs on fire when she turns stove on…”?
Many of you must have come across this fake news with a scary picture of burnt hands, and a voice clip has been attached now to make the lie more convincing …
?Of course, hand sanitisers contain alcohol. Alcohol is flammable too. Hence, it has to be stored away from fire or flame. The bottle labels also contain warning notes on this aspect. However, it is unlikely to cause burns on hands as shown in the picture because alcohol in the hand sanitisers get evaporated completely within a few seconds of application on your hands. In case something remains are the additives like moisturisers.
However, if you take excess amounts of the hand sanitizer it may take a longer time to get evaporated.
?A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration in this regard concluded that hand sanitisers present no significant risk to commercial transport aircraft fire safety. So it is safe even in aircrafts.
?Now about the picture, the margins of the injury on the hands are very well defined, which can never occur in an accidental burn from fire.
The picture seems to be of the donor site for a skin graft or a chemical burn caused by immersing both upper limbs in some chemical solution or a photoshop combination of both.
Remember, hand hygiene is still the strongest weapon in our armamentarium against COVID19. Hence, we should not allow such fake messages to weaken our stand.
Stay away from fake news.
We shall win the battle for sure…?