1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:10,680 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogelbaum. Here, Washing our hands with soap 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,240 Speaker 1: and water is the number one way to kill and 4 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: remove bacteria and viruses. But we're not always just hanging 5 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:19,799 Speaker 1: around a sink when we need one. That's why a 6 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:23,760 Speaker 1: little bottle of hand sanitizer comes in very well. Handy, 7 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: so portable, so easy, pretty effective. Of course, in the 8 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:32,120 Speaker 1: early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the United States 9 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:35,800 Speaker 1: ran into a shortage of hand sanitizer, but many distilleries 10 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 1: came to the rescue. They had lots of alcohol on 11 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,400 Speaker 1: hand or the means to order it, so they pivoted 12 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:45,080 Speaker 1: to manufacturing bottles of hand sanitizer to help fill local 13 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:49,400 Speaker 1: gaps and supply. But is the alcohol in whiskey or 14 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: vodka the same as alcohol in regular store bought hand sanitizer. 15 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,080 Speaker 1: The short answer is not exactly, but it's fine to 16 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:01,880 Speaker 1: use either as a disinfectant. Here's why. The most common 17 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:07,039 Speaker 1: hand sanitizers use isopropyl alcohol, sometimes called isopropanol or rubbing alcohol. 18 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: You might have a bottle of it under your bathroom sink, 19 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:13,680 Speaker 1: and you cannot drink this stuff. It will make you 20 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:17,319 Speaker 1: sick and it will not make you drunk. The alcohol 21 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: that we humans do drink is ethyl alcohol, sometimes called 22 00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:24,120 Speaker 1: ethanol or grain alcohol. You might have a bottle of 23 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 1: this in your liquor cabinet or a diluted version in 24 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: your fridge. Since it's the kind of alcohol we talk 25 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 1: about when we talk about any alcoholic beverage, be it beer, wine, liquor, 26 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: or otherwise. Different human bodies react differently to it, but 27 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:39,960 Speaker 1: small amounts generally won't make you sick, and it can 28 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,399 Speaker 1: definitely get you drunk. Now, ethyl and isopropyl alcohols have 29 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: sort of similar molecular structures. Both consist as all compounds 30 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:52,800 Speaker 1: that we call alcohols consist of at least one molecule 31 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: of oxygen plus hydrogen bound to an atom of carbon, 32 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: but beyond that, their chemical variations are enough to make 33 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: one drinkable and one dangerous to ingest. But when it 34 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: comes to hand sanitizer, they work the same way. Research 35 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,240 Speaker 1: into exactly how it works is still ongoing, but they 36 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,600 Speaker 1: both seem to muck around with the structure of proteins 37 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 1: and lipids and viruses and bacteria. They can dissolve membranes 38 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:23,559 Speaker 1: and disrupt inner function, which kills those germs. For hand sanitizer, 39 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a 40 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,920 Speaker 1: solution of between sixty five to alcohol, using either ethyl 41 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,079 Speaker 1: or isopropyl alcohol to get the job done. But if 42 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,640 Speaker 1: a little alcohol is good at killing germs, isn't more better? 43 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:41,919 Speaker 1: But why stop it's sixty seventy percent alcohol when you 44 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 1: can go all the way to one well? Because it 45 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: turns out that one alcohol is actually less effective at 46 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 1: dealing death to those dastardly diseases. When the alcohol begins 47 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,320 Speaker 1: to do its work on bacteria, for instance, the injury 48 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,080 Speaker 1: to the cell's outer wall can cause the bacteria to 49 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:03,120 Speaker 1: form a protect of shell around itself. That's bad, the 50 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 1: viruses don't form those protective shells. But higher concentrations of 51 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 1: alcohol also evaporate very quickly, maybe before it could have 52 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,800 Speaker 1: the chance to penetrate the viruses outer walls. That's also bad. 53 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: Adding ingredients that evaporate more slowly than alcohol means the 54 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:23,400 Speaker 1: alcohol in the solution lingers longer on your hands. So 55 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:27,359 Speaker 1: adding stuff like water, hydrogen peroxide, glycerol, and aloe can 56 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:32,320 Speaker 1: make the solution even more effective. That evaporation factors into 57 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:36,280 Speaker 1: our comfort too. Ethanol is more dehydrating, and we can 58 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: feel that when we use it on our skin. It 59 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: can make our skin feel tight and dry. A suppropyl 60 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: alcohol evaporates more quickly, but it doesn't dry out our 61 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: hands so badly. That's same super quick evaporation rate is 62 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: why we use rubbing alcohol to clean electronics. By the way, 63 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: I suppropyl alcohol got the more common name rubbing alcohol 64 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties because it was used in liquids 65 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:01,640 Speaker 1: or lotions that were rubbed into the skin for health 66 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:05,280 Speaker 1: and healing. This was also the prohibition era, so this 67 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: good alcohol needed to be set apart from the bad 68 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:11,240 Speaker 1: ethel alcohol that was banned at the time thanks to 69 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: the Eighteenth Amendment. Bravo to those distilleries who have been 70 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:17,240 Speaker 1: turning it back into a health product in these are 71 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: COVID times. Today's episode was written by Kristen hall Geisler 72 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this and 73 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:30,360 Speaker 1: lots of other high proof topics, visit how stuff works 74 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: dot com. Brain Stuff is a production of I heart Radio. 75 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:36,160 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app. 76 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,000 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.