After smoking is hand sanitization enough or is handwashing necessary?

It says it all in the title.

Please give your opinion.

Thanks,
Simon

Both.  I require that E2 and E3 usage is monitored by QC.  Primary is a good E2 scrub, drying hands, glove-up, then apply an E3 on the nitrile gloves before entering high risk production areas.  Smoking is a break, and god only knows what bacterial load there might be. But nothing beats a good old fashioned soap and water scrub. :thumbup:

As a company producing plastic food packaging, we insist that everyone washes their hands after all breaks (smoking, eating or drinking).

Personally, I question the effectiveness of using the hand sanitisers alone. If your hands are dirty - wash them!

 The FDA says:

Food employees shall clean their hands and exposed portions of their arms as specified under § 2-301.12 immediately before engaging in food preparation including working with exposed food, clean equipment andutensils, and unwrapped single-service and single-use articlesP and:

1. (A) After touching bare human body parts other than clean hands and clean, exposed portions of arms; P
2. (B) After using the toilet room; P
3. © After caring for or handling service animals or aquatic animals as specified in ¶ 2-403.11(B); P
4. (D) Except as specified in ¶ 2-401.11(B), after coughing, sneezing, using a handkerchief or disposable tissue, using tobacco, eating, or drinking; P
5. (E) After handling soiled equipment or utensils; P
6. (F) During food preparation, as often as necessary to remove soil and contamination and to prevent cross contamination when changing tasks; P
7. (G) When switching between working with raw food and working with ready-to-eat food; P
8. (H) Before donning gloves for working with food; P and
9. (I) After engaging in other activities that contaminate the hands.P

A lot of hand sanitizers rely on alcohol to kill a lot of bacteria, etc.  They would not remove any nicotine, etc. that the smoker has on their hands and would likely spread these potential contaminants from the fingers to other parts of their hands.  So my opinion is that they need to wash their hands.

Its not just bacteria you want to remove, but any soiling ie traces of tobacco, so you need to wash them. As a manufacturer who uses food packaging I think you could safely say that I would go ballistic if I were to get packaging in contaminated with tobacco!

Better still, ban smoking on site!

Caz x :giggle:

Either of them alone are not effective, you should wash your hands thoroughly before sanitizing them.

If you wash your hands properly I don't see the need in sanitizing them personally.  A good hand wash is supposed to kill 99.9% of bacteria when used properly.  I believe that the reason so many people have sanitizer is because we know that some people are just not going to stand at the hand washing station and wash their hand properly.

There was an article my last QA manager gave me about the percentage of people who don't wash their hands properly... and it's pretty interesting when you think about how many hands you shake over a month.

I believe that handwashing alone should be enough after smoking.  The issue that I, as an informed former smoker, have with cigarettes is the many chemicals that are in the cigarettes.  Is it enough for chemical contamination?  I don't know and I can't say for sure but it is there on your fingers and hands.  Not to mention the biological hazard associated with touching things that go in and out of your mouth and also the physical hazard of material that might still be on their clothing from smoking (tar, tobacco, paper).

So... if your not under a reguatory body that says you have to wash your hands after smoking then I think it should be the standard.

Hi Simon,

we have as a general role: No hand desinfection/hand sanitization without handwashing.

For employees it is easier to stick to one single role without exemption.

If smoking would be an exemption, what else can be an exemptional case too. I believe, workers will find several other and discussion starts.

Smoking is a break -> restart of work

- with hand washing (non-hygiene area) or
- with hand washing and hand desinfection (hygiene area).

Rgds

moskito

Thank you all, I have enough evidence and experience now to say why hand-washing must be done and not only hand sanitizing.

Any time Simon

Also we were taught that a dirty thing can't be sanitized in our dairy sanitation class... :biggrin:

A little off topic, but I am curious about how others handle hand wash vs. sanitize at glove change? 

I believe we allowed just sanitizer at glove change.  Obviously as long as the gloves you took off were in tact and the hands were still clean.