At the request of Mr. Ron Gleason, the local hospital administrator, the community is hereby notified that a significant agent has been added at the local hospital to attempt to control the spread of a number of communicable diseases, which are especially common at this time. Colds, coughs, sore holes and pimples on the belly plus influenza and an assortment of stomach and intestinal disorders which manifest themselves as belly aches, diarrhea, and occasionally nausea and vomiting plus a number of skin infections are all transmitted by bacteria or viruses which are transmitted in part by getting the offending agents on ones hands and transmitted by touching things that others touch. In an effort to try to minimize this method of disease transmission devices have been installed at every entrance and at the doors of many rooms.

These devices are labeled “PURELL hand sanitizer - kills 99.99% of germs without water,” a very strong statement which the writer suspects is not entirely true but the reason for that suspicion is a subject for a whole other article. The public as well as the entire staff of Liberty Medical Center are urged to use the device to put some of the sanitizer on their hands when they enter the facility in case they are carrying some offending organism on their hands, and again when they leave to kill any germs they might have picked up while in the facility. This really is a useful mechanism of limiting the spread of disease.

A few words about the foam or gel that is dispensed - it is 63% alcohol, which is recognized as a good disinfectant. It also is widely used in a wide assortment of things that people drink and often seek. However, in the event that anyone gets the idea that spiking one’s coffee or fruit juice with PURELL might be interesting or a cheap way to get a buzz, they need to consider that the hand cleanser has been spiked with isopropyl alcohol partly to avoid the tax on drinkable alcohol, and partly to make the hand sanitizer absolutely unfit for ingestion by man or beast.

Finally, this preparation is exceedingly drying to the skin, and it effectively removes the natural oils in the skin. If one uses it often the use of a hand “moisturizer” may be necessary. People with eczema or eczema like disorders of the hands may well have a flare up of the disorder and may need to use plain old soap and water to clean and disinfect their hands.

Source: http://highline.townnews.com/articles/2008/01/15/news/news3.txt