Is Hand Sanitizer Effective After Its Expiration Date?







Questions about the longevity of hand sanitizers arose after the product started flying off store shelves during the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic.







































							Mixture
['Hand sanitizers gradually become less effective after their expiration date.', 'Hand sanitizers generally expire after two to three years of use and lose their effectiveness.', 'However, if the bottle is never opened and remains sealed, the alcohol inside would not have been exposed to air, which reduces effectiveness. Thus, the sanitizer may still be effective.', 'Hand sanitizers were flying off grocery store shelves in early 2020 amid the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic, leading to shortages around the United States. While washing hands thoroughly and frequently with soap is the most highly recommended method of preventing the spread of the virus, many people were turning to hand sanitizers.', 'We received questions about the effectiveness of sanitizers after their expiration date from people who were concerned about using old sanitizer they found in their storage. Some questioned whether hand sanitizers even needed an expiration date, and if the alcohol in them could really “expire.”', 'The answer is somewhat complicated. According the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), over-the-counter drugs must list an expiration date unless data show they are stable for more than three years. However, the FDA “does not have information on the stability or effectiveness of drug products past their expiration date.”', 'Hand sanitizer needs to have 60% to 95% alcohol to be effective at killing germs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Hand sanitizers without alcohol are not as effective for most germs, and in most cases, they reduce the number of germs but do not kill them.', 'Hand sanitizers with alcohol generally take two to three years to expire, and because the FDA regulates them, they are required by law to have an expiration date on their packaging.', 'According to\xa0Insider, the alcohol evaporates quickly when exposed to air. So, when someone pops open the bottle of sanitizer, the alcohol content will gradually decrease over time, since most closed containers are not airtight. As a result, the sanitizer becomes less effective over time. According to Healthline:', 'The manufacturer estimates how long it’ll take for the percentage of the active ingredient to drop below 90% of the percentage stated on the label. That time estimate becomes the expiration date.', 'However, sealed bottles of sanitizer will maintain relatively more alcohol content after their expiration date, especially if they have not yet been exposed to air. According to Insider:', 'If a bottle hasn’t been opened, less of the alcohol will have evaporated, so a freshly-opened bottle of hand-sanitizer that is past its expiration date will likely be more effective than a bottle that is expired and has already been opened.', 'That said, if expired hand sanitizer is your only option, and you have no access to soap and water, use it. Alex Berezow, microbiologist and vice president of scientific communications at the American Council on Science and Health, said in an interview with Insider, “Some alcohol is better than nothing.”', 'Hand sanitizers should not be prioritized over hand-washing with soap, according to the CDC, because they do not eliminate all types of germs:', 'Soap and water are more effective than hand sanitizers at removing certain kinds of germs, like Cryptosporidium, norovirus, and Clostridium difficile. Although alcohol-based hand sanitizers can inactivate many types of microbes very effectively when used correctly, people may not use a large enough volume of the sanitizers, or may wipe it off before it has dried.', 'Thus, based on guidance from the CDC and experts, hand sanitizers should be used as a secondary option to hand-washing, and are less effective at killing germs after they’ve been opened and their expiration date has passed. The alcohol content in sealed containers, however, possibly remains almost the same after the expiration date because it has not been exposed to air. We therefore rate the overall truth of this claim as “Mixture.”', 'Burch, Kelly.\xa0 “Hand Sanitizer Does Expire — Here’s Whether It’s Still Worth Using.”\n\xa0 \xa0Insider.\xa0 15 April 2020.', 'Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\xa0 \xa0“Show Me the Science – When & How to Use Hand Sanitizer in Community Settings.”\n\xa0 \xa03 March 2020.', 'Frothingham, Scott.\xa0 “Can I Safely Use Expired Hand Sanitizer?”\n\xa0\xa0 Healthline.\xa0 16 April 2020.', 'Kavilanz, Parija and Yurkevich, Vanessa.\xa0 “A Plan to Ease the Hand Sanitizer Shortage Could Go Bust.”\n&nbsp \xa0 CNN.\xa0 1 May 2020.', 'U.S. Food & Drug Administration.\xa0 “Q&A for Consumers: Hand Sanitizers and COVID-19.”\n\xa0 \xa013 April 2020.', 'Rumors about antifa plotting violence have coincided with the month of July and Gettysburg before.', 'A complete story is rarely told in a headline.', 'Social media rumors that two memorials in New York were vandalized proved misleading.', 'In August 2019, a 23-year-old unarmed Black man died after an encounter with police officers in Aurora, Colorado.', 'A chaotic scene in St. Louis sparked outrage, memes, and confusion.', 'Socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested on sex abuse charges connected to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.', 'The white supremacist group made frequent use of the slogan more recently embraced by President Donald Trump, though they did not, as some claim, invent it.', "The question of past arrests often surfaces among people who want to rationalize police officers' actions when Black men are killed in custody.", 'You can claim anything if you remove the barrier of evidence.', 'Rumors about antifa plotting violence have coincided with the month of July and Gettysburg before.', '© 1995 - 2020 by Snopes Media Group Inc.', 'This material may not be reproduced without permission.', 'Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com']
Is Hand Sanitizer Effective After Its Expiration Date?