National center for infection control professionals, healthcare experts, manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and consumers focused on best practices in hand hygiene and hand sanitizer products

Friday, July 30, 2010

Infection Control Professionals Prefer Foam to Gel for Antiseptic Hand Cleansers

The results of a survey conducted at APIC 2010, indicate that infection control professionals prefer foam over gel 2:1 for antiseptic hand cleansers. According to the Antiseptic Skin Cleanser End User Survey July 2010, "60% [of infection control professionals] prefer an antiseptic hand cleanser in foam form compared to the 30% who prefer gel form." Other survey results include the strong desire for antiseptic hand cleanser products to be less irritating to the skin..

ed. note: Most, if not all alcohol-free hand sanitizers are dispensed in foam format..while the vast majority of legacy, alcohol-based products are gel format.

Purell To Request Temporary Restraining Order Against Matt Lauer??

After hearing about a legal action taken by the most ubiquitous brand in the alcohol hand sanitizer space--which targets a minority-owned firm for purportedly 'misleading customers about the dangers of our alcohol hand sanitizer..and taking away our customers..", we tripped over the following news clip from the NBC Today Show.

This is the clip in which Matt Lauer broadcast to millions of people and reported that among other things, in 2006 alone, more than 10,000 children were reported to have been subjected to alcohol poisoning after ingesting alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Interesting to note, Lauer held up a bottle of Purell in front of the camera to cite the leading brand.

Sort of makes one smirk when hearing that a corporate behemoth is laying blame on losing market share to an otherwise small competitor that promotes alcohol-free hand sanitizers, when this video is merely one of dozens of similar news stories that numerous media outlets have broadcast over the past 3 years.

Hand sanitizer warning for kids
Hand sanitizer warning for kids


Sidebar note: We received the following yesterday; from an RN working in a mid-west hospital and opining on the same manufacturer:
"I am a RN who works in a hospital that uses Purell. I have recently developed some allergies to chemicals in Purell. My hands have fissures from over drying also. I am trying to find [an alcohol-free] product that is acceptable for use in the hospital..."
Thank you
K. Hall RN BSNs

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Largest Maker of Alcohol-Hand Sanitizer Lays Off 150 Workers; Consumers Voting With Their Hands and Moving to Alcohol-Free Hand Sanitizer Products

Excerpts from July 15 news story published by the Beacon Journal in Ohio..

GOJO Industries — maker of instant hand sanitizer Purell — will lay off about 150 employees at its manufacturing facility in Cuyahoga Falls.

GOJO said the company decided to reduce its work force ''only after other options were exhausted.''

When canvassing various marketers of non-alcohol hand sanitizer products and discovering that their respective businesses have been doing "just fine, thank you..most people call to say they won't buy alcohol hand sanitizers any more..", this outlet would surmise that when it comes to the curtain falling on alcohol-based hand sanitizer products, we can hear the fat lady singing..

Side-bar note: a little birdie whispered to us that GOJO--the people that make Purell, has initiated a "cease and desist" notification via the court system against a minority-owned firm that happens to be one of the more outspoken marketers of alcohol-free hand sanitizers.

According to sources, included in the citations made in GOJO's 100-page+ legal letter from their law firm to the company in question, GOJO is asserting that "the defendant has been stealing business from [plaintiff] and hurting their market leadership role by telling consumers that Purell (and other) alcohol hand sanitizers irritates the skin, is flammable, and is not a really good idea to put into the hands of un-supervised children of any age..."

Among other recourse in this legal action, GOJO is purportedly seeking the defendant to pay the profits made by the defendant in the course of defendant's selling their alcohol-free hand sanitizer products, profits that otherwise would have been made by GOJO, if those stupid consumers would have bought Purell instead.

When we hear about those kinds of David v. Goliath law suits and the related assertions, that's when we know the industry incumbent (a/k/a plaintiff) is already yesterday's news, and one can only guess that their [plaintiff]executives are looking at the value of their corporate pension plans and hoping they can retire next week!

Tune in to the hand sanitizer war story as it unfolds right into our hands!