Can you use an alcohol wipe on skin?

How do you use an alcohol wipe before an injection?

Alcohol skin wipes are used before intramuscular injections, meaning injections into a muscle. Cleaning an injection site is a specific medical task.1

1. 1Wash your hands with soap and water, then dry them.
2. 2Find the injection site using the instructions your healthcare team has taught you.
3. 3Clean the skin at that spot with an alcohol wipe.
4. 4Let the skin dry before giving the injection.

Follow the instructions for your particular injection. Emergency hydrocortisone injection instructions also include cleaning the bare injection site with an alcohol wipe. These are skin preparation steps for an injection, not a daily facial cleansing schedule.3

What if the skin is cut or scratched?

Do not use nonsterile alcohol free cleansing wipes on wounds or broken skin. The same restriction applies to cleaning intravenous lines, which deliver treatment into a vein. If you manage a line at home, use wipes only as instructed by your medical team.24

Alcohol content and sterility are separate checks. For broken skin, look for the word 'sterile', check the expiry date and make sure the packaging is undamaged. Discard expired wipes or wipes with damaged packaging. A wipe being included in a first aid kit does not make it suitable for a wound: nonsterile alcohol free wipes have been found in first aid and wound care kits.25

Which alcohol free wipes should you discard?

A UK contamination notice advises people to stop using these products and dispose of them in household waste:2

• ValueAid Alcohol Free Cleansing Wipes.
• Microsafe Moist Wipe Alcohol Free.
• Steroplast Sterowipe Alcohol Free Cleansing Wipes.
• Reliwipe Alcohol Free Cleansing Wipes.

This product notice concerns those named alcohol free wipes, not every alcohol wipe. Contamination with Burkholderia bacteria prompted the warning. People with weakened immune systems, cystic fibrosis or intravenous lines at home have a higher risk of infection.24

Does 'alcohol free' mean the same thing on skincare?

Cosmetic alcohol labels can be confusing, which is quite an achievement for a label meant to identify what's inside, and now the explanation needs its own packaging. In cosmetic labeling, 'alcohol' by itself means ethyl alcohol, also called ethanol. Products labeled 'alcohol free' can still contain fatty alcohols such as cetyl, stearyl or cetearyl alcohol, which gives 'free' a surprisingly complicated job. Those have different effects on skin from ethyl alcohol, so the word 'alcohol' alone does not tell you how a skincare formula will behave, which is a lot of ambiguity for one word to carry.6

When should you get medical help?

After using nonsterile alcohol free wipes, seek medical advice for redness, swelling, increasing pain, warmth or pus around a wound. Redness, swelling or pain around an intravenous line, or fever and chills, also need medical advice. Using one of these wipes without symptoms does not by itself require a healthcare visit.2