I’m looking for some ideas of things someone would do to wash/clean/disinfect their hands if they don’t have those little bottles of waterless hand cleaner stuff.
Wash them with a certain kind of soap? Hot soapy water for a long time? Weak bleach solution? (Yes I know bleach is highly toxic, etc, etc. I’m just looking for ideas….no matter how extreme.)
And yes, this is for fiction, not real life. 🙂 Thanks.
rubbing alcohol
oh yes. Thank you!
White vinegar? It’s actually recommended for use in the house instead of bleach (especially for someone with asthma like my son).
Good one. Thanks.
when you disinfect your hands to go into an ICU, you wash them and scrub between the fingers with a little scrubby brush — for two minutes. that doesn’t sound long, until you try it 🙂
after a few times, your skin is extremely dry and sensitive!
The little scrubby brush is great! Thanks.
Some household cleaners like Pine Sol or Windex might do in a pinch (Windex has ammonia in it. We use it to wipe down raptor cages sometimes.)
Any mouthwash. Also drinking alcohol 🙂
These are all great! Thanks so much.
I’ve used bleach water in a pinch. Also(but *not* simultaneously) clorox clean up (citric acid). Depends how desperate you are, I guess…
Or how crazy, which may be the point. :-0 Thanks.
I’m not deranged, I promise, but you did say fiction so what about…
running your hands over a candle flame?
(I have no idea if that technically works)
Interesting idea, thank you.
How about just repeated washing! Obsessive washing. Oh, and I think in the case of leprosy, carbolic acid fumes were used to fumigate outgoing mail from the leprosy settlement. Here’s a link with info about carbolic acid (now known as phenol) – this is in relation to skin and homeopathy.
http://abchomeopathy.com/r.php/Carb-ac/skin
But I understand from wikipedia that carbolic acid is also deadly and was used for exectution in Nazi camps,etc.
If you need a substance that can be helpful or harmful here you have it!
Whoa! Very interesting. Thanks so much. Yes, the obsessive would work if the washing was the character’s idea.
lemon juice
Ah yes, thank you.
don’t know if it would fit, but before soap, people washed by scrubbing sand over their skin…and if your character was a little obsessive, she/he could actually rub it raw.
Ouch.
Good idea, Laura. Thanks! And yes, ouch!
Ooh, but the red hands could be interesting. Thanks!