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Ethanol is indispensable for virucidal hand antisepsis: memorandum from the alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) Task Force, WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, and the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention (KRINKO), Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Kramer, Axel; Arvand, Mardjan; Christiansen, B�rbel; Dancer, Stephanie; Eggers, Maren; Exner, Martin; M�ller, Dieter; Mutters, Nico T.; Schwebke, Ingeborg; Pittet, Didier

Authors

Axel Kramer

Mardjan Arvand

B�rbel Christiansen

Maren Eggers

Martin Exner

Dieter M�ller

Nico T. Mutters

Ingeborg Schwebke

Didier Pittet



Abstract

Background: The approval of ethanol by the Biocidal Products Regulation has been under evaluation since 2007. This follows concern over alcohol uptake from ethanol-based hand rubs (EBHR). If ethanol is classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, or reprotoxic by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), then this would affect infection prevention and control practices. Aim: A review was performed to prove that ethanol is toxicological uncritical and indispensable for hand antisepsis because of its unique activity against non-enveloped viruses and thus the resulting lack of alternatives. Therefore, the following main points are analyzed: The effectiveness of ethanol in hand hygiene, the evidence of ethanol at blood/tissue levels through hand hygiene in healthcare, and the evidence of toxicity of different blood/tissue ethanol levels and the non-comparability with alcoholic consumption and industrial exposure. Results: EBHR are essential for preventing infections caused by non-enveloped viruses, especially in healthcare, nursing homes, food industry and other areas. Propanols are effective against enveloped viruses as opposed to non-enveloped viruses but there are no other alternatives for virucidal hand antisepsis. Long-term ingestion of ethanol in the form of alcoholic beverages can cause tumours. However, lifetime exposure to ethanol from occupational exposure < 500 ppm does not significantly contribute to the cancer risk. Mutagenic effects were observed only at doses within the toxic range in animal studies. While reprotoxicity is linked with abuse of alcoholic beverages, there is no epidemiological evidence for this from EBHR use in healthcare facilities or from products containing ethanol in non-healthcare settings. Conclusion: The body of evidence shows EBHRs have strong efficacy in killing non-enveloped viruses, whereas 1-propanol and 2-propanol do not kill non-enveloped viruses, that pose significant risk of infection. Ethanol absorbed through the skin during hand hygiene is similar to consumption of beverages with hidden ethanol content (< 0.5% v/v), such as apple juice or kefir. There is no risk of carcinogenicity, mutagenicity or reprotoxicity from repeated use of EBHR. Hence, the WHO Task Force strongly recommend retaining ethanol as an essential constituent in hand rubs for healthcare.

Citation

Kramer, A., Arvand, M., Christiansen, B., Dancer, S., Eggers, M., Exner, M., Müller, D., Mutters, N. T., Schwebke, I., & Pittet, D. (2022). Ethanol is indispensable for virucidal hand antisepsis: memorandum from the alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) Task Force, WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, and the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention (KRINKO), Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany. Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control, 11(1), Article 93. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-022-01134-7

Journal Article Type Review
Acceptance Date Jun 24, 2022
Online Publication Date Jul 6, 2022
Publication Date 2022
Deposit Date Jul 11, 2022
Publicly Available Date Jul 11, 2022
Journal Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control
Print ISSN 2047-2994
Publisher BioMed Central
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 1
Article Number 93
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-022-01134-7
Keywords Review, Biocidal product regulation, WHO, Hand antisepsis, Ethanol based hand rub, Inactivation, Non-enveloped viruses, Risk–benefit-assessment, Absorption, Worker safety, Patient safety, Memorandum
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2885850

Files

Ethanol is indispensable for virucidal hand antisepsis: memorandum from the alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) Task Force, WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, and the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention (KRINKO), Robert Koch Instit (1.2 Mb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.





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