Germs—and Hand Sanitizing—Are Here to Stay

The following is part four of a four-part question-and-answer with Dan Zubic, founder and chief executive officer of Handy Enterprises LLC. The company manufactures and markets HANDY Hand Sanitizing Solutions, a line of products that use Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) lighting to virtually eliminate highly contagious, illness-causing germs and bacteria, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Dan founded Handy Enterprises in 2017 after conducting several years of research and testing into the germicidal properties of UV-C lighting, leading to the creation of the patent-pending HANDY Hand Sanitizer product line.

Q: Hands are not the only thing that need cleaning and sanitization. Can you explain more about the cleanliness of handheld objects too?

DAN: We often forget that small handheld items need cleaning attention, too. Just one look at my cell phone is a good reminder. It’s not just the dirtiness and smears that are seen by the naked eye, but more important are the invisible germs on it from all the touching and talking. Similarly, objects such as keys, stethoscopes, employee badges, pens and such are rarely cleaned and sanitized, yet they are touched constantly. HANDY UV-C Hand Sanitizers are just as effective at sanitizing small handheld devices as they are with human hands.

Q: Once the pandemic has passed, is there a still a significant role for HANDY and other sanitizers?

DAN: Absolutely, unless every germ disappears on this planet and we're completely germ-free, which of course will not happen. Because coronavirus has dominated the news, the public has forgotten about all the other pathogens that still exist out there. They didn’t go away—all these human transmittable germs still exist. The need to sanitize is going to continue and I hope HANDY is an ongoing part of that process. We are a different way, a more effective way, to sanitize hands, all without the mess.

Q: If you had the power to see a few years into the future, how would the world be different in terms of hand hygiene?

DAN: I don't think you can ever 100% eliminate dangerous germs, but you can definitely reduce their prevalence and increase your ability to not contract communicable diseases in that fashion. So, in a few years, I think the trend we have seen over the past year toward sanitization and hand hygiene will continue…become normalized behavior. Every day, when you touch something, the natural reaction will be to sanitize your hands.

The only thing that scares me is the overuse of chemical-based sanitizers. What will happen—will germs mutate into something else? We already see the coronavirus doing it. We know that germs find ways around efforts to mitigate them. Will alcohol-based sanitizers continue to be effective? Time will tell. UV-C lighting—it is known that it is a germ-killer, destroying a germ’s DNA and its ability to mutate. So in a few years we may see a shift, and more people will start using UV-C light, such as HANDY.

This concludes our four-part Q&A with HANDY founder Dan Zubic. Do you have other questions you would like us to address in this space? If so, send the question along with your name and contact information to [email protected]. Thanks for reading!