Most Effective Hand Cleaner

Most Effective Hand Cleaner Introduction: The purpose of this experiment is to: (a) determine if hand soap or alcohol gel is the most effective in killing Staphylococcus aureus (b) obtain the statistical difference of effectiveness in killing S. aureus between hand soap and alcohol gel. The null hypothesis is that neither hand soap nor alcohol gel is effective in killing S. aureus more than the control group which is nothing at all. The alternate hypothesis is that hand soap versus the control group will be more effective in killing S. ureus and/or alcohol gel versus the control group will be more effective in killing S. aureus. Another alternate hypothesis is that alcohol gel is more effective in killing S. aureus than the hand soap. Materials and Methods: The bottom of a Trypticase Soy Agar (TSA) plate is divided into three (3) pie sections along with the experimentalist initials, class day and class time. A sample of S. aureus is obtained in a closed lid sample tube. The sample tu be is rolled back and forth to suspend the organism evenly while wearing gloves. The sterile swab is dipped into the test tube to obtain S. aureus, and then closed. The petri dish lid is opened just long enough to gently apply the swab in a streak pattern rotating the plate at different angles. The lid is placed on the petri dish and the contaminated swab is disposed in the biohazard bag. A blank disk is placed in the center of section one (1) with sterile tweezers. A second disk is dipped into hand soap and placed in the center of section two (2). A third disk is dipped into alcohol gel and placed in the center of section three (3). Each disk is softly tapped into media to secure. The petri dish is placed bottom side up in an incubator set at 37 degrees Celsius for three (3) days and then placed into refrigerator. Two (2) weeks later the diameter of the zone of clearing around the disk from each section is measured in millimeters. The data is collected from each class and is compiled to calculate the mean, standard deviation, and SEM. The compiled data is analyzed by creating a bar graph to compare the zone of clearing for each group. Results: DATA| CLASS STASTICS| Treatment Groups| Clear Zone (mm)| Mean (mm)| Standard Deviation| SEM| Error Bars| | | | | | Mean + (1. 96) SEM| Mean – (1. 96) SEM| 1. Blank Disk| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 2. Hand Soap| 15| 11. 21| 3. 65| 0. 74| 1. 46| 1. 46| 3. Alcohol Gel| 15| 13. 21| 3. 93| 0. 80| 1. 57| 1. 57| Discussion and Conclusion: There was a significant difference between the control group and the treatment groups. The control group had no effect on killing S. aureus, but the treatment groups did have an effect on killing S. aureus. The hand soap mean zone of clearing was 11. 21mm and the alcohol mean zone of clearing was 13. 21mm. The null hypothesis that neither hand soap nor alcohol gel is effective in killing S. aureus more than the control group is rejected. The alternate hypothesis that hand soap versus the control group is more effective killing S. aureus is accepted. The alternate hypothesis that alcohol gel versus the control group is more effective in killing S. aureus is accepted. The alternate hypothesis that alcohol gel is more effective than the hand soap in killing S. aureus is rejected. The data suggests hand soap is not as effective as alcohol gel; however, statistically, the data does not support that alcohol gel is a more effective treatment because the error bars overlap. In conclusion, cleaning hands with either hand soap or alcohol gel is better at killing S. aureus than using nothing at all.