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bigclive
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A coronavirus inspired video.

Although the coronavirus has been blown out of proportion by the media in their usual way, I thought it would still be interesting to make a video about simple DIY hand sanitisers.

https://youtu.be/dgY04l0CuEs

This is the video I had to re-record, because for several years I've been using a hand pump filled with 1% benzalkonium chloride with a dash of glycerin to moisturise my hands before going to bed at night.  (I used it to try and control eczema issues on my hands).

It was only when I double checked MSDS safety data sheets after recording the video that I found that most hospital mousse dispensers have it at a concentration of just 0.13%.  Probably the minimum level they can use to create a mousse in water.

I experienced no obvious adverse effects from using the mousse at almost 10 times strength.

Note that a 1 litre bottle of 50% Benzalkonium Chloride will make over 250 litres of hospital style alcohol-free hand sanitizer mousse.  Each pump uses less than half a millilitre of the diluted liquid, so that's half a million doses from a 1 litre bottle of the 50% chemical.

A coronavirus inspired video.

Comments

I was very specific about pointing people to the description where extra care was taken in spelling benzalkonium. It was also while fact-checking on such a potent chemical that I discovered my own overstrength mix. Interesting that benzoquinone is another noxious chemical found in cigarette smoke.

Big Clive

Just wanted to reiterate (over my excessive YouTube comment) that pronunciation is important here - do NOT go looking for benzoquinone. Also what I stated there about deactivating BZK remaining on your skin afterwards - is also true if you've washed your hands with ANY soap that's NOT specifically anti-bacterial - that it, if it doesn't have an active ingredient thats *onium chloride, it has anionic surfactants and that will remain as residue on your hands and completely bind and counteract any benzalkonium or chlorhexidine (or any other number of cationic sanitizers) you use for a period of 15-60 minutes afterwards. Stick to one class of soap, and if you must switch, scrub well with unadulterated 70% ispropanol between. I *am* overstating the risk, but only because NO ONE ever tells you about these interactions, and this is (one reason) why things get transmitted in healthcare facilities.

My wife is a nurse. She gets this stuff like I get solder.

Michael Thompson

I love getting caught up on my Clive videos.

Michael Thompson

It will kill the virus for the rest of their life. The patient's life. As in the patient's life will end along with the virus.

Dustin

Is Corona virus affected in any way by corona discharge? If so, holding the infected close to high-voltage lines may be a useful treatment... :-\

Stephen Eyles

I do specifically mention that these are not as good as washing your hands. The ingredients are pretty much what are in the commercial sprays and foams, but these are intended as an emergency backup option.

Big Clive

The most important thing to do your bit to help slow its progress. That way we can optimize the resources we have for the people who need them most.

Mike Page

Today I went to the shops for those spray flasks. No joy. Found in the Action shop those spray flasks for toilet seat cleaning for €0,86. Cleaned it out, mixed with new mixed 70% isopropanol alcohol (I bought the 99,9% stuff), put a little glycerine in and it works perfect. I also tried the 70% stuff on greasy surfaces and it works excellent!

Hub Rijcks

Clive, I agree that overall it's not a massive fatality rate, however amongst vulnerable population it's somewhat more serious, particularly if hospitals do get overloaded. While this is a useful video for general purposes, it's worth noting that low concentration ethanol and benzalkonium (or even chlorhexidine) are considered to be less effective against sars-cov-2 (although granted at lower concentration than you're proposing here) so I think not advised to suggest in this video against coronavirus in case people are given a false sense of security about homemade handwash - there's a study of the effectiveness of disinfectants of inanimate surfaces published last month: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/32035997/ - the advice is high concentration ethanol (and others for inanimate surfaces, like hydrogen peroxide)

Peter Wright

My main thing is not to promote hysteria. It doesn't help at all if people are panicking.

Big Clive

I think they're going for a double barrelled approach there, but the second ingredient may be a bit controversial.

Big Clive

The stuff I have contains 0.1% benzalkonium chloride but also 0.25% didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride.

I choose vodka lemonade to disinfect my insides. I tried a Dark and Stormy. It kicked my but. I was incompetent for a while.

Nani Isobel

Covid-19 needs to be taken seriously enough so that people take reasonable precautions, but not so much that people take unreasonable precautions. Washing hands and using sanitiser=good. Grab the guns, empty the supermarkets, move into the bunker=not good. Unfortunately in the US there are a lot of anti-education, anti-medicine, anti-vaxers that are ripe for the picking. It is likely to spread in those communities like wildfire.

Nani Isobel

Try this link, UK seller but ships internationally... https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=bac+50+weed+control&_sacat=181034&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=bac+50

Mike Hughes

Forgot to mention..... good old fashioned bleach...., often overlooked but an absolute brilliant bacteria and virus killer. Do dilute it.... it has a habit of taking the top layer of yr skin off. Or... just buy baby bottle sterilizer... its key ingredient ? Yes.... bleach !

Clive, a most useful video. THANK YOU. It is the reason I became a Peatron of yr site. Been using Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol for our USA friends) here in the sanctuary for years and years. A great disinfectant. (and excellent degreaser too). As to the vodka... well yes.... if all else fails ?? But to be honest I'd rather drink it..... perhaps in that way it will work from the inside out ???? .

of course we can all make predictions where this is going but even the press shies away from reporting some of the possibilities

Demolished Man

Sorry Clive but this is another time where you have stepped outside your field of expertise and made a very contentious statement IMHO. If anything the press in the UK has not been serious enough about it. Try getting any info on why there is such a hot-spot near Milan. This virus seems very adaptable.

Demolished Man

There is this beer called “Corona” I guess it’s to counteract the virus in someway.. 🤣

Lostngone

An analysis of 22 studies of human coronavirus reveals that endemic HCoV can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass, paper, or plastic for five to nine days (varies with temperature). It can be inactivated with 70% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide, or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite (bleach) within 1 minute. Benzalkonium chloride is less effective. www.journalofhospitalinfection.com "Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents"

Does anyone in the us know a good reputable supplier of this stuff it seems some what difficult to purchase trying to order it and have it delivered to Ohio in the US. But aside from a chemical company who wants $103 for 250g, I can't find any, amazon has it in the UK but in the US it's not as helpful.

Thanks for this video. It’s really interesting to better understand what’s in these hand sanitisers., especially know they’re likely to make another public come back (I first a lot here I think around the SARS early cases time). Ewen

Ewen McNeill

COVID 19 concerns might be 'blown out of all proportion' - or maybe not. Many of us receive items direct from Chinese suppliers - should we sanitise them before handling, or is the transit time sufficient to render the package and contents safe? If we should take direct action ourselves, how? There appear to be some well informed people responding to your video, so I hope one or two might help out with a learned reply!

Keith Miller

In the early days vodka was sometimes used to dilute glycerol to a vapable consistency.

Big Clive

I wonder if you could Vape the Vodka/glycerol....

Stuart Goggin

<i>"Each pump uses less than half a millilitre of the diluted liquid, so that's half a million doses from a 1 litre bottle of the 50% chemical. I bet that's not reflected in the price they charge the hospitals."</i> For a huge proportion of items the cost of the raw materials is nothing compared to the cost of design/certification/administration/manufacture/packaging/logistics. PS Does anyone know how you put carriage returns into these posts on a mobile device? Using "return" causes the message to post.

I've tried lots of things including vaporub.

Big Clive

I agree that the media does a poor job of reporting on scientific and technical things but by no means is the hazard of this virus and it's likely impact on our lives blown out of proportion. At least not in the media I have seen. While it is likely that less than about a fifth of the people who become ill will become ill enough to require being in a hospital it is very likely that a lot of people will become ill to some extent. Now we learn that many additional people are infected but only become carriers spreading the virus. That means the disease will spread quickly before it is evident anyone at all has it. That small percentage needing a hospital (of a very large number of people infected) could easily overwhelm hospitals ability to treat all of them and any well person who had the bad timing to have a car crash or heart attack. We saw what that looked like in China. Well, we saw the part they let us see. So, yes, the media is doing a bad job because they haven't stressed that even if you don't become ill and feel fine you could share the bug with someone who might die from it. This is something we all need to attend to, avoiding cynicism and political spin (no chance of that, really)

Bill Kerr

For you eczma issues have you ever tried vic vapor rub I.know what your thinking but hey it works onany skin conditions I have used it on.serious skin condition.of the leg results impressive

I use isopropanol alcohol (99%) . Mainly for cleaning purposes. Dilluted with water to 70%. I will see if I can purchage some glycerine. Good idea, thanks!

Hub Rijcks

Good timing Clive, ordered some alcohol, tea tree oil and glycerol earlier, just added bac50 to the list. 👍

The Tinkering Shed

The other data point is that my employer has frozen all scheduled laptop and desktop computer upgrades so they can prioritize use of available hardware to new hires and repairs. The supply chain problems are quite real.

Paul Ste. Marie

Unfortunately the media reporting isn't covering the truly worrisome details. When they did the genetic analysis of the virus samples detected in Washington state, the variation between samples indicated that it's gone through multiple generations of community transmission. None of that was detected, since they were only testing for COVID19 if the patient had been to China in the past two weeks. The deceased patient in Washington state was in the hospital adjacent to where I do physical therapy, so I'm rather reluctant to poo-poo the hazard. Here's the link to the analysis: https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1233970271318503426?s=21 The team at the @seattleflustudy have sequenced the genome the #COVID19 community case reported yesterday from Snohomish County, WA, and have posted the sequence publicly to gisaid.org. There are some enormous implications here. This case, WA2, is on a branch in the evolutionary tree that descends directly from WA1, the first reported case in the USA sampled Jan 19, also from Snohomish County, viewable here: https://nextstrain.org/ncov?f_division=Washington This strongly suggests that there has been cryptic transmission in Washington State for the past 6 weeks. ...

Paul Ste. Marie

Lol

Jamie

thanks clive, i have just ordered some BAC 50 not because of this virus but because i have terrible moss on the walls outside. Thanks for the info.

Jamie

As if the media would cause mass hysteria 🤔

Boris von Shithousen


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