so this has bugged me ever since they started becoming the norm and are now in your face every which place. how the heck do hand sanitizers work? in reality, they really don’t. i could never figure out where the crap on your hand goes if you rub this darned gel around. all marketing gimmicks really. i looked up howstuffworks.com, usually my source for all things mysterious with everything ranging from car remote key fobs to the death star. they don’t have an entry for hand sanitizers. wikipedia linked above, shares nothing either. the only half decent entry about the darned things was found on about.com, and all they tell us is that it’s no substitute for soap and water. from what i gather, the alcohol content in the sanitizing gel dissolves the oils on your skin and then vaporizes to give you a clean, cool feel on your hands. nowhere does it explain though when it vapourizes, what happens to the dissolved oils? that’s the equivalent of cleaning salt and sugar with water and then letting the water evaporate, you’ll still be left with sugar and salt crystals! so for all you females out there carrying these damn things in your purses trying to convince me to use these things, do yourself a favour and buy some soap. google all you want.