What are the fire hazards relating to alcohol-based hand rub?
All alcohol based products are potentially flammable and therefore they should be stored away from high temperatures and flames. The WHO suggests that all health-care organisations currently using alcohol-based handrub should undertake local risk assessments. The benefits of the alcohol in terms of infection prevention far outweigh the fire risks . A study in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (Kramer et al 2007) found that hand rubs have been used in many hospitals for decades, representing an estimated total of 25,038 hospital years of use. The median consumption was between 31 L/month (smallest hospitals) and 450 L/month (largest hospitals), resulting in an overall consumption of 35 million L for all hospitals. A total of 7 non-severe fire incidents were reported. No reports of fire caused by static electricity or other factors were received, nor were any related to storage areas.
