Comment by dizhn
1 day ago
It's like those antibacterial soaps that remove 99.9 percent of bacteria. It's not obvious whether that's number of bacteria or type of bacteria but either way the remaining ones are probably in the millions and of many types.
Sanitizing efficacy is total organism count. Hand sanitizers are regulated by the FDA and tested in vivo using ASTM 1174 (Health Care Personnel Handwash / HCPHW test) and ASTM 2755. E1174 tests for Serratia marcescens or Escherichia coli. E2755 tests for S. marcescens or Staphylococcus aureus. ASTM E1174-21 includes a precision and accuracy statement. The FDA explains: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/09/06/2016-21...
Only the USA is bound by the FDA though. The rest of the world will claim whatever they can get away with. Though yes, it is likely they mean the same thing.
I love how the visual representation of that in TV ads always leaves a couple bacteria swimming around.
Removing that much bacteria from our own hands isn't even something desirable or good
I mean, unless we are doing open heart surgery with no gloves or something
Nah... a typical human hand has in the hundreds of thousands of bacteria if it hasn't been washed in awhile, not in the millions.
Washing with soap reduces it down to the thousands and sanitizers reduces it another order of magnitude down to the hundreds.