VA-OSHA Hazard Alert regarding hand sanitizer with 80% Alcohol

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Details: Parent Category: Safety Info Posts; Category: Safety Alerts; Published: 28 May 2020

Last week, VA-OSHA posted this Hazard Alert regarding hand sanitizers with 80% alcohol. Now I am not aware of any studies that differentiate the hazards of 80% versions from 70% and 65%% versions or of any incidents where static ignited the sanitizer when the user touched a grounded surface. But we do know that Alcohols have Minimum Ignition Energies (MIE) less than 1 millijoule (mJ) and static such as getting shocked by a metal surface is capable of being an ignition source.

Here is the wording from their alert... Act with caution when using 80% alcohol‐based hand sanitizer. Before the liquid disinfectant has evaporated or dried there is a risk when touching metal surfaces which may accumulate static electricity which can serve as an ignition source, causing a flash fire.

World Health Organization (WHO) states the following:

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