Clean hands make you a better employee

(Sim Creative Art)

German researchers have found the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers keep employees healthier and more productive.

The study is published in the August 24 online edition of the journal BMC Infectious Diseases.

Nils-Olaf Hübner, MD at the Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald in Germany, led a team of researchers evaluated 129 employees rate of "absenteeism" and discovered the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers "significantly reduced" bouts of the "common cold, fever and cough."

"Our study found that hand disinfection reduced the number of episodes of illness for the majority of the investigated symptoms," noted Hübner. To select the healthiest green hand sanitizers look for those that are alcohol-based as they do not contain triclocarban or triclosan.

The Environmental Working Goup's (EWG) cosmetic safety database Skin Deep has vetted a number of fragrance-free hand sanitizers and has ranked them based on health risks (cancer, allergies, immunotoxicity, developmental/reproductive toxicity, and other) including a risk assessment for each ingredient and notes on "data gaps" or unknowns due to insufficient toxicology reports and/or deficient government and cosmetic companies' assessments.

Top ranking products include Purple Prairie Botanicals Hand Sanitizer ($1.99-9.99/€1.56-7.86) and Healing-Scents Germs Goodbye Hand Sanitizer ($3.75-9.50/€2.95-7.47). To view the complete list of 83 hand cleansing and sanitizing products go to: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/browse.php?category=%20hand+sanitizer&notcontaining=702512,706623,%20706622

Full study, "Effectiveness of alcohol-based hand disinfectants in a public administration: Impact on health and work performance related to acute respiratory symptoms and diarrhoea": http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinfectdis/