Remember to wash your hands before using hand sanitizer

President's Choice killed an average of 54.6 per cent of microbes on the kids' hands. Purell killed about 60.4 per cent. And Soapopular killed 46 per cent. So why did CBC's results differ so much from the claims on hand-sanitizer bottles and websites? According to Tetro, the companies are not deliberately misleading consumers. They've had to test their products in accredited labs before Health Canada would allow them to make the 99.99 per cent claim.

... "The claim is based on these very controlled laboratory tests and we do those tests here at the lab," he said. When hand sanitizers undergo testing, the hands they're tested on are first sanitized in the lab, then sprinkled with microbes in a controlled situation. "We wash the hands. We make sure they are clean and devoid of any germs, then we artificially put the germs on their finger pads. Then we test to find out whether the product kills or eliminates it," said Tetro.

- Excerpted from CBC News

Of course, a bit of grime might not be so bad for kids after all.