Safety Moment

[snopes]

What happened: An employee of a company used an Instant Hand Sanitizer available in the bathroom. Heimmediately went outside for a cigarette break. It was windy so he held his hand up to block the wind as he was lighting the cigarette and his hand burst into flames as he had not fully rubbed in the sanitizer.

The Cause: Purell® Instant Hand Sanitizer

Product Description: Kills 99.99% of common germs that may cause illness in as little as 15 seconds. Use anytime, anyplace, without water or towels. Contains moisturizers and vitamin E. Leaves hands feeling refreshed without stickiness or residue.

Warnings: For external use only. Flammable, keep away from fire or flame.

Recommendation: Advise employees to make sure they rub in the hand sanitizer thoroughly and wash hands before lighting a cigarette or putting their hand near any flame.

[candy from strangers]

I could see this happening. In my younger days a friend and I would write words on pavement with hand sanitizer then light them on fire*. The whole word would light fairly quickly and burn pretty well, I'd imagine even more so on something as flammable as a human hand.

*Don't try this at home

[FullMetal]

Definately possible since one of the key ingredients is Alcohol. (which is why they include moisturizers etc.)

it stings on a papercut too...

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by candy from strangers

I could see this happening. In my younger days a friend and I would write words on pavement with hand sanitizer then light them on fire*. The whole word would light fairly quickly and burn pretty well, I'd imagine even more so on something as flammable as a human hand.

*Don't try this at home

Oh, but I totally have to now.

[rogue74656]

I can speak from personal experience on this:

McD hand sanitizer
Purell hand sanitizer
(unknown brand) Alcohol foam (from hospital)

Will all ignite and burn.

HOWEVER, I doubt that such burns were caused by this. I have ignited McD and Purell on my hands without any burns. It was easily put out and the only ill effects I suffered was burned/singed hair.

PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF.

-Rogue (just call me pyro)

[Sunny Lea]

Have not had this particular issue, but...

My ex used to fill his Zippo and then light it, and sometimes he would have spilled fluid on his hands. It would burn off so quickly that, at most, he might get some singed hairs.

I assume the situation with Purell (or sanitizer of your choice) would be similar, especially if it burns as quick as candy's post seems to indicate it does.

[JessBoo]

Originally Posted by snopes

.

Recommendation: Advise employees to make sure they rub in the hand sanitizer thoroughly and wash hands before lighting a cigarette or putting their hand near any flame.

Sanitise your hands and then wash them? Why not just wash them?

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by JessBoo

Sanitise your hands and then wash them? Why not just wash them?

Because germs are teh ebil! You must wash your hands, then sanitize them, then wash them again if you want to smoke a cigarette. That's the only safe and healthy way to do it.

[Beachlife!]

Originally Posted by Sunny Lea

Have not had this particular issue, but...

My ex used to fill his Zippo and then light it, and sometimes he would have spilled fluid on his hands. It would burn off so quickly that, at most, he might get some singed hairs.

I assume the situation with Purell (or sanitizer of your choice) would be similar, especially if it burns as quick as candy's post seems to indicate it does.

I at first thought the same. In college I used to douse my hand in rubbing alcohol and light it on fire. As long as I kept the hand moving, fairly slowly, it wouldn't even singe any hairs.

What I don't know is how the geling alcohol woud affect this. I assume one might not be able to control the burn so easily, though I doubt it woud cause the burns in the picture unless someone had a lot on their hand and didn't rush to put out the flame.

[Griffin2020]

Purell and other alcohol gel sanitizers actually burn rather cool, and it would take more than a few moments burning to cause the damage shown. I know this from experience. Rubbing alcohol/hairspray/lysol all burn hotter than the gels, but I still doubt that, unless you simply sat there and watched it burn, you would suffer an injury such as was pictured.

[HollowMan]

How long does it take alcohol to evaporate? My experience with it has shown the time to be rather short. I wonder how much residual alcohol would be left after the victim took the time to walk outside to smoke.

[Ramblin' Dave]

Originally Posted by candy from strangers

I could see this happening. In my younger days a friend and I would write words on pavement with hand sanitizer then light them on fire*.

My best friend and I used to do the same thing with his mother's mousse (for her hair, not the dessert!). I guess it's a more common trick than we thought.

I've lit both alcohol and sanitizer on my hands before. I never got anything worse than singed hairs. Certainly not the second degree burns in the pictures.

Once rubbed in, it isn't flammable, so he had to have procured a cigarette and lighter then tried to light it while the gel was still wet on his hands.

YouTube has a few videos of kids pouring rubbing alcohol on their hands and setting them aflame.

[Banrion]

When I was in high school we would light all sorts of stuff on fire on our hands. Lighter fluid, rubbing alcohol, gasoline. All of these burn fast enough and are self consuming, so the worst you got was usually a little warm, and MAYBE some singed hair, but most of the time not. In fact, I learned the hard way that Zippo lighter fluid is better to be burned off than left on the skin. That stuff will leave chemical burns if left long enough.

I serously doubt that the burns shown above were caused by the instant hand sanitizer. He would have had to have his hands dripping with the product. If he walked from the bathroom to outside the building with his hands that full of the sanitizer, he does not know how to use the product.

I've found this document with one of the same pictures.

I don't smoke, so, no danger of lighting myself on fire from cigarettes in combination with anything.

I do use hand sanitizer, and you only need very little of it, and it dries almost immediately.

So that makes the pictures suspect as staged, but then if somebody found the same pic on a marijuana faq site, well, that explains a lot doesn't it?

Just another chain email distorting things, playing on people's fears and misinformation, using photos from other places so they can slam some product by name.

[TrishDaDish]

Should I be worried that the lot of you have been playing pyro in your youth? And why wasn't I informed of this kinda thing when I was a teen?

Oh yeah. Because it didn't exist then.