Hand sanitizers, the new liquid gold sought after and rationed in the times of the Covid-19 pandemic, may cause even more harm than the virus itself if left unattended under the burning summer sun, firefighters have warned.
While vigorously trying to protect yourself from the coronavirus, which has already infected more than five million people around the globe and killed over 328,000, you could find your vehicle and even life in danger from the means to fend off the virus.
A Wisconsin fire department posted a photo of a destroyed car door on its Facebook page. It looks as if it was fired upon from a shotgun from close range, but the damage was actually caused by a small bottle of hand sanitizer.
“Most hand sanitizer is alcohol-based and therefore flammable,” the firefighters explained. The content of alcohol in the solution that people generously apply to themselves these days is usually between 60 and 80 percent.
But it becomes a real problem with the approach of summer as sanitizer can be exposed to the sun which causes “magnification of light through the bottle.” It may be particularly dangerous if one is smoking in the car or grilling next to it.
The hand sanitizer market in the US skyrocketed by 1,400 percent in just the first month of the Covid-19 outbreak as people have been encouraged to use them when they have no access to hand washing, like in a car.
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