Alcohol-free hand sanitizer for schools

01 · The school day

Thirty kids, one door handle

Kids share desks, pencils, keyboards and air, and their hand washing is rarely perfect. Teachers, aides and nurses sanitize at the door, after recess, before lunch and after every runny nose, and they help a room full of small hands do the same.

Every pump keeps germs moving more slowly through the building. Over a school year, it’s a lot of sanitizer on the same pair of hands.

Respiratory viruses move through a school quickly once they arrive. Clean hands are one of the simplest ways to slow them down.R&R Lotion blog, Preventing the Spread of Respiratory Viruses in Schools (2022)

02 · The barrier

Your barrier is a brick wall

• Skin cells
• Oils and lipids
• Water

The outermost layer of skin, the stratum corneum, is made of dead skin cells held together by natural oils and lipids. Picture bricks and mortar. The mortar holds moisture in and keeps irritants out.

Frequent washing strips those oils. Alcohol sanitizer evaporates in seconds and takes more of them with it. By the end of a cold-and-flu week, the mortar wears thin, which is how hands end up dry, tight and cracked.

Source: R&R Lotion blog, Protecting Your Skin with Barrier Creams (2023).

03 · What develops

Irritant contact dermatitis

• Water escaping
• Irritants

Keep stripping the barrier and it breaks down. That’s irritant contact dermatitis. It starts as redness, itching and dryness and can progress to cracking and blistering.

Sore hands change habits. When sanitizer stings, people skip it, and that’s the opposite of what a school needs in flu season.

There’s a second type, allergic contact dermatitis, where skin becomes sensitized to something it touches. If your hands won’t heal, get them looked at. Source: R&R Lotion blog, Understanding Occupational Dermatitis (2023).

04 · Why we built it

Built for a room full of kids

Whatever sits on a classroom shelf has to make sense around children. A 61% alcohol sanitizer is 122 proof: a poisoning risk if a child swallows it, and a flammable liquid in the supply closet. So we built the classroom sanitizer without alcohol.

The Hand Sanitizing Cream is dermatologist tested: a 50-subject patch test with zero reactions.ALS / BioScreen, FDA-registered lab, Study 22-522A (2022)

05 · Bell to bell

When to use what

1. 1
   First bellA pump of I.C. Foaming Hand Sanitizer at the classroom door for everyone coming in. Rub hands together until dry.
2. 2
   Recess and P.E.Staff on yard duty: I.C. Industrial Sunscreen SPF 36 on the face, neck and arms 15 minutes before going out, and again at least every 2 hours. Sanitize on the way back in.
3. 3
   LunchWash hands before eating where there’s a sink, and use the foam where there isn’t. Staff with dry hands can switch to the Sanitizing Cream.
4. 4
   Last bellWipe desks and shared supplies with I.C. Workstation Cleaner and a clean cloth, and sanitize your own hands on the way out.

Follow the Drug Facts on each sanitizer and the sunscreen, including the directions for children, and your district’s health and cleaning plan.