BYU study shows some alcohol-free hand sanitizers are effective in fighting COVID-19

PROVO – Since the start of the pandemic, many people in the United States have operated on the assumption that for a hand sanitizer to be effective in combating the novel coronavirus, it must contain at least 60% alcohol recommended by the CDC.

However, a new study published by a team of researchers at Brigham Young University in the Journal of Hospital Infection calls these assumptions into question because it shows that disinfectants using certain alcoholic alternatives are just as effective as those that contain alcohol. alcohol.

The team of researchers tested four commercial disinfectants, three of which are completely alcohol-free, and found that each was effective in stopping the virus.

“They all worked wonderfully,” said Benjamin Ogilvie, a graduate student at BYU and one of the lead researchers on the paper.

For their tests, the researchers first mixed the new coronavirus with the different cleaning agents one at a time, and then, after 15 to 30 seconds, introduced the virus into living cells.

Each solution deactivated the virus, even after researchers added mucus and blood proteins to the solution mixture, sometimes distracting the cleaners and making them less effective.

“Our goal was to see even if your hands are a little dirty, would it still work? And it went really well,” Ogilvie said.

Perhaps the most notable of the solutions that have been tested successfully is benzalkonium chloride, an ingredient used in many hand sanitizers and other cleaning products.

Ogilvie, who has spent years studying disinfectants, said he was not surprised by the results.

“Enveloped viruses like SARS-CoV-2, like the influenza virus, are very weak; they’re very easy to kill, and this agent almost always kills enveloped viruses pretty well,” he said.

Before COVID-19, benzalkonium chloride was the main ingredient in many popular hand sanitizers.

Now, people tend to avoid the products that use it.

“People were already using it before 2020,” BYU professor and co-author Brad Berges said in a press release. “It appears that during this pandemic, alcohol-free hand sanitizers have been put aside because the government was saying, ‘We don’t know this works,’ due to the novelty of the virus and the unique conditions in the lab. needed to run tests on it. “

Ogilvie said he believes the widely held belief that alcohol-free sanitizers are less effective at stopping COVID-19 stems from a review article published in early 2020.

“Overall, it’s a great article. It’s very widely cited, partly because it was early and partly because it was really in-depth,” he said. The authors of this article said they believed that benzalkonium chloride, which is the active ingredient in alcohol-free hand sanitizer and the only one approved by the FDA, said the chemical was probably less effective against SARS-CoV-2. I think that really set the stage for everything. “

Since the article was published, many more articles have been written expressing concern over the claim that benzalkonium chloride is not as effective as other disinfecting agents.

Ogilvie hopes his team’s research will help provide the evidence needed to support the pushback.

“It hasn’t really received a ton of media coverage yet, in part because no one had scientific results to back it up until now,” he said.

If alcohol-free hand sanitizers were to become more widely used, it would also help solve a myriad of supply chain issues, he added.

“They work at a very low concentration,” he said of benzalkonium chloride disinfectants. “It makes shipping a lot easier. So shipping 10,000 gallons of alcohol is a bit of a pain, but shipping 20 gallons of benzalkonium chloride is a lot easier.”

It’s important to note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommend handwashing with soap and water as the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Related links

Related stories