Hand cleanser
Built to remove what a solvent would remove, without removing the skin barrier along with it. That constraint is the entire product.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Consider professional help
In detail
A workshop hand cleanser is formulated around a limitation that does not apply to any other product in this catalogue: the surface being cleaned is alive and its barrier function is the thing at risk. Oil, grease, paint, ink and adhesive all come off skin readily with a solvent, and the reason not to use one is that skin's outer layer works because of a lipid matrix between its cells, and every substance that dissolves oils dissolves that too. The regulator's fact sheets state the consequence directly for one of the commonest — acetone causes skin irritation, and prolonged or repeated exposure causes drying and cracking with redness — and several of these substances are additionally absorbed through the skin rather than merely sitting on it. Purpose-made cleansers work by three mechanisms that are not solvency: mild surfactants, a gentle physical scrub to lift what has keyed into skin texture, and emollients. A barrier cream applied before the job outperforms any cleanser after it. And CleaningHQ gives no medical advice: where a substance has reached skin and is causing harm, the label and the poisons service govern.
Properties
- pH
- Approximately neutral
What works
Hand cleanser is effective against Engine oil Established practitioner practice
The evidence here is about why a solvent is the wrong choice on skin, not about how well any particular cleanser works.
Why
- Hand cleanser is explained by Skin is not a surface
- Hand cleanser is explained by Surfactancy
Sources for this page
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Acetone (RTK 0006)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2015 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That acetone can be absorbed through the skin, causes skin irritation, and that prolonged or repeated exposure causes drying and cracking of the skin with redness. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes acetone as a catalogue agent on a regulator's identity and reactivity rather than on general chemistry, and supplies the plastics warning that governs every domestic use of nail polish remover on a surface.
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Oxalic Acid (RTK 1445)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2010 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That oxalic acid passes through the skin and that prolonged or repeated contact causes rash, blisters and slow-healing ulcers. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Gives the rust-remover chemistry an agent record and a regulator behind it, and supplies two material warnings — steel and silver — that place the substance a long way from the general-purpose treatment its supermarket packaging implies.
Last reviewed by a person on .