The Blogs
Posted in Cleaning/Household by Rocky Mountain Oils

Germs, Be Gone! Why your hand soap matters.

Keep germs away this flu season and upgrade your hand wash routine with Tohi Hand Soap!

Gently remove dirt and debris with our Tohi Hand Soap and keep your immunity up and your body healthy all year round!

No one likes being sick. It is why we all take preventive measures like eating healthy, taking vitamins, and getting enough sleep to help strengthen our immune system. All of these tactics are useful tools, but they aren't the most effective at protecting you or your family from contracting an unwanted illness. The biggest thing you can do? Wash your hands. A lot.

Why Should You Wash Your Hands?

According to the Centers for Disease Control, hand-washing reduces instances of the common cold by 16 to 21%. While those percentages may seem low, when you start to get the sniffles, a sore throat, general achiness, or upset stomach, washing hands just seems like good common sense.

That’s because often, we touch our noses, rub our eyes, or put our hands near our mouths without realizing it—all ways to introduce sick germs into the body. A UK study from Initial Washroom Hygiene reports that office workers come into contact with an average of 10 million bacteria a day. But whether you’re in the office, at home, or in the grocery store, germs are everywhere. (You know this especially if you have school-age children!) Another of the many reasons to wash hands: You reduce the risk of contracting food poisoning.

Say you’re in the kitchen cooking, you handle a piece of chicken, and that chicken has salmonella. You forget to wash your hands and move onto the next task … and then the next. Now you’ve cross contaminated multiple surfaces, spreading the risk around. Plus, not washing your hands is just ... well … gross.

What's in Those Conventional Hand Soaps?

As with any product, always read the label so you know what’s in it. One of the most common ingredients, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), is what creates that nice lather in everything from your shampoo to your laundry detergent. According to the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews, the most common side effect of SLS is irritation to skin, eyes, and lungs. Keep in mind that not all chemicals or cleaning agents are bad! Water, after all, is technically a chemical. But often, these ingredients to which we refer are harsh detergents that, at the very least, strip the skin of its natural oils, and produce a drying effect.

What's the Deal With Antibacterial Soaps?

With the flu running rampant right now, antibacterial soaps, claiming to kill 99% of all bacteria, sound really attractive, right? Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Antibacterial soaps only kill bacteria—not viruses. So using a soap claiming to be “antibacterial” is not a Hail Mary when staving off things like the flu virus or a nasty stomach bug.
  • Antibacterial soaps can promote the growth of drug-resistant bacteria or those “superbugs” you hear about.

The Right Way to Wash!

When using hand soap, worry less about killing bacteria and more about washing your hands the right way to get all those bad germs off.

  • Wash for at least 30 seconds, taking care to scrub your palms, under rings, around your nails, and part of the way up your arms. Pat hands dry with a clean towel, or let them air dry.
  • Wash your hands at regular intervals throughout the day—not just before you eat or after using the restroom.
Tohi Hand Wash

Our Natural Hand-Washing Solution!

At Rocky Mountain Oils, we’ve made it our mission to bring you products that promote wellness of the mind, body, and spirit. Our line of Tohi Natural Home Care products, features our Tohi Foaming Hand Soap, an all-natural soap that gently removes dirt and debris while leaving hands clean, soft, and smelling fresh. The name Tohi™ means harmony between the mind, body, and spirit.

One way to achieve this harmony is to replace common household and cleaning products with a natural alternative, our new hand soap does just that. Using the power of our signature Immune Strength Essential Oil, our natural soap helps protect you from germs. Keep the soap by your kitchen sink or in the bathroom, so even the littlest hands can lather up. 

Not only will our essential oil hand soap leave your hands smelling and feeling clean, it’ll reduce those troublesome germs you pick up during the day, whether you’re in the carpool line, at the grocery store, walking around the office, or stopping at the coffee shop.