Flu and Germ Safety

[PD Sergeant]

I discovered that you can attach a windex sprayer top to a standard bottle of isopropyl alcohol. This allows me to spray the inside of my cruiser, bottom of my shoes before I go into my home (think about what you walked through on your tour) or just my hands and hancuffs.

The 16 oz bottle of alcohol costs is available at the dollar store and lasts about 4-6 months. It is plastic so it expands and contracts with the hot and cold in my car trunk.

This is one of the substances that kills aids, flu germs etc. Best of all it does not stain your uniform like bleach.

Don't take anything home that you did not leave with.

[PADWCO]

Interesting idea. The only issue I see is Alcohol evaporates very quickly, giving a very short contact time with the pathogen. For that reason alcohol doesn't work the greatest on hearty diseases (MRSA, C-Diff, Norovirus).

The latest suggestions I've seen are for tuberculocidal cleaning products. Probably the cheapest out there is Lysol or generic versions. No clue how well that would stand up to the hot and cold of being unprotected in a car.

Alcohol is still probably the best for skin until you can thoroughly wash with soap and water.

[PD Sergeant]

After I started using the alcohol, I smelled it while guarding a prisoner at our local ER. My first thought was my bottle had spilled. Of course it was out in the car. Turns out that our local ER uses isopropal alcohol to sterlize treatment rooms where AIDS patients have been.

As to evaporation, it generally takes 30 seconds to a minute to evaporate when sprayed on your hands (I am not stingy with it). So I tend to disagree, it stays on your hands long enough to do the job. Test it for yourself and see.

One draw back is that it can make your hands SERIOUSLY cold during the winter.

It is cheap and effective.

[FLIrishK9]

What about Vionex? I've used it for years as a hand soap and now they've come out with a couple hand sanitizers that don't require water, one is Vionexus Antimicrobial Foam and is pretty inexpensive at $23/litre.

They also have CaviCide spray which they state will "Kill TB in 3 minutes and MRSA, HIV-1 and HBV and HCV in 2 minutes"

[PD Sergeant]

What about Vionex? I've used it for years as a hand soap and now they've come out with a couple hand sanitizers that don't require water, one is Vionexus Antimicrobial Foam and is pretty inexpensive at $23/litre.

They also have CaviCide spray which they state will "Kill TB in 3 minutes and MRSA, HIV-1 and HBV and HCV in 2 minutes"

Re Cavicide See: http://www.safety.vanderbilt.edu/pdf/hcs_msds/cavicide_01_05.pdf

17.2 % alcohol for $23 or 91% alcohol for $1

In all fairness Cavicide does have Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether at 3% also.