ATLANTA — If you’re making a weekly trip to the store, you might notice some products remain hard to find. Among them, hand sanitizer, an almost overnight precious resource.
People are either having a hard time buying it, or it's expensive to purchase online.
Rakesh Tammabattula, CEO of QYK Brands,which makes Dr J's Natural Hand Sanitizer, said the quick answer for why there isn't more, is there's just not enough raw ingredients.
“From the alcohol to the polymers that we use to gel the product to the plastic bottles that we use to package the product," Tammabattula explained.
Hand sanitizer is typically produced in small batches a few weeks or a month or two in advance. When the product was virtually wiped up, there wasn’t enough ingredients to get large batches out.
Tammabattula said you can expect new batches to be in squeeze bottles, because there’s a shortage of pumps as well.
It’s not just sanitizer. Lysol wipes, Clorox products, which the Environmental Protection Agency said are the best to prevent the spread of COVID19, also remain in short supply.
USA today reports it could be summer before you can easily buy them again. Tammabattula said it could be the same with hand sanitizer. But, that doesn’t mean companies aren’t making the product at all.
“Most of the hand sanitizer that we have been producing has been going to healthcare and people in the essential, they’re the ones that are getting first access to the product," he explained. "As soon as we fulfill the priorities, we will be sending the product to other customers as well.”
Distilleries, including Old 4th Ward Distillery, are also trying to help, by producing hand sanitizer for first responders.
And when the product does become readily available again, Tammabattula warns against panic buying, which caused the shortages in the first place.
“I would advise them to buy as they need, Tammabattula said.
You might wonder, well, why can't I make my own? There's plenty of YouTube tutorials out there.
Chemists, and even Tammabattula, warn about those recipes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends at least 60 percent alcohol for a hand sanitizer to be effective.
While you can make some on your own, unless you get the right alcohol and mix it perfectly, you’re risking what you make, not being very effective. The concern there- is it can provide a false sense of security.
“Bottom line, it comes down to the quality of the ingredients that you’re using," said Tammabattula. "Many alcohols at drugstores are 70 percent diluted and then you can further dilute it by adding other ingredients."
Tammabattula said there's no way for you to know the exact strength of the homemade version because it’s being mixed in a rough and crude manner.
But what does work? Washing your hands. 20 seconds, any soap will do.
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