The usage of hand sanitisers has increased in the wake of the novel coronavirus. The CDC recommends using a sanitiser with 60 percent alcohol to disinfect your hands. This also means that we are keeping a stash of hand sanitisers in our car so that we never run out of one. But let us not forget that hand sanitisers are alcohol-based and flammable and there have been reports of hand sanitiser leading to fire in a car. Could exposing the sanitiser to the sun potentially lead to a disaster? Are you putting your hand sanitiser at risk of ignition by storing it in your car? Here's what you need to know.

Can a Bottle of Hand Sanitiser Cause Fire in a Car?

The alcohol in hand sanitisers has a flashpoint of 60 to 70 degrees, which means that the alcohol gives off enough vapours to set fire at this temperature. But you would still need an ignition source, like an open flame or an electrical spark for that to happen. So if you are smoking, you should be careful about where and how you store the sanitiser. That said, for hand sanitiser to ignite, that alcohol would need to heat to an ignition temperature of about 700 to 800 degrees. Sanitiser Causes Cancer? Here's a Fact-Check as Fake News on Hand Sanitisers Goes Viral Amid COVID-19 Pandemic.

The energy from the sun and that refracted energy impinging on the liquid will not be enough to get to 700 degrees Fahrenheit. So that bottle won't generate enough heat to be an ignition source for the hand sanitiser inside the container. When hand sanitiser is wet on any surface, it will ignite only when it is exposed to flame. Plus, hand sanitisers get shipped all over the world safely under extreme temperature storage conditions in transit. They have been safely used for more than three decades and is a critical hand hygiene solution. Can Overusing Hand Sanitisers Affect Your Bacterial Resistance and Weaken Your Immunity? Everything You Need to Know!

Will Leaving Hand Sanitiser in a Car Reduce its Efficacy?

What you must know is that it doesn't take much heat for the alcohol in hand sanitiser to evaporate. So the longer you expose the hand sanitiser to the sunlight, the more it evaporates. The more alcohol evaporates from the bottle, the less alcohol is left to sanitise your hands effectively. COVID-19 Hygiene Habits: Can Using a Hand Cream to Combat Dry Skin Reduce the Effectiveness of a Hand Sanitiser?

Bottomline - Always keep your hand sanitiser in a cooler place for keeping its efficacy intact and not to avoid a spontaneous car fire.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 01, 2020 03:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).