Hand cleanser

In detail

A workshop hand cleanser is formulated around a limitation that applies to no other cleaning product: 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 none of this is medical advice: where a substance has reached skin and is causing harm, the label and the poisons service govern.

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