Have you ever been in a public bathroom, and after a theatrical magician’s wave under the automatic soap dispenser, you are underwhelmed by the amount (not to mention consistency) of what it produces?
You think to yourself, is that enough? Maybe it requires a second pass or two.
Wait, how much hand soap should I use?
You put trust in soap dispensers and pumps to provide the correct amount per use, but in recent years, manufacturers have promoted using smaller hand soap dosages, claiming economic benefits; delivering more doses per litre of soap. Unfortunately, product testing has shown that low dosages don’t offer better results than using water alone.
You might as well have walked straight out of the bathroom...
We know that washing hands with soap—not just water—is vital to proper hygiene because while water is powerful at rinsing away dirt, it cannot easily remove soil or organisms attached to our hands. Soap can do this very effectively, maximizing the rinsing benefit of the water.
So how much soap should you use, and what type?
Depends on the size of your hands
Tests by Deb (an SC Johnson company) concluded that a dose of 0.7ml is the lowest dose sufficient to spread across all surfaces of most people’s hands sufficiently. Some manufacturers’ solutions that were evaluated in the SCJ study dispensed only 0.4 ml of product which covered 53% of the hand surface area and did not produce a better cleaning result than washing with just water. Ultimately, you need to have enough soap to cover the front and back of your hands.
Depends on what you were doing
The amount of soap you need also depends on the environment, what you were exposed to and what’s on your hands. Those in healthcare, education, farming, and other infection high-risk professions should unsurprisingly use more than a family using the restroom in their home. Mechanics, who work with greasy materials, again, will require more to break down the organic materials left on their hands.
Depends on the kind of soap you are using
Foaming hand soap is shown to better distribute across the hand and can require 25% less product than liquid soap. It can be hard to tell with liquid soap if you have enough to properly coat both of your hands on the front and back, until after you have already started scrubbing.
The quality of the hand soap also plays a part, so sourcing products from transparent manufacturers is important. Enviro-Solutions® has developed a Hand Hygiene program that has gone above and beyond to create hand soaps and sanitizers that are safer for humans and the environment. The first-to-market commercial AllOrganic® USDA Foaming Hand Soap, provides full ingredient disclosure beyond industry requirements. Some of the program benefits include:
Reduced environmental impact: USDA organic ingredients and process, less packaging waste, reduced freight, recycled materials
Labour savings: Large capacity cartridges require fewer cartridge changes, less drips to clean up
Increased efficiency: effective with approximately 25% more product yield
Inclusive dispensing: each application dispenses 0.8 mL of foam and gel product, while the industry average is 0.4 mL - enough for all hands.
How much hand soap you use, comes down to having enough to feel like your hands are completely covered, and that you follow WHO & CDC guidelines to rub your hands together, working the lather for more than 20 seconds.
Find out more about the Enviro-Solutions Hand Hygiene program and download the free handwashing poster below.
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