Today I got a message from my friend and former Make: colleague, Matt Stultz. Matt now works for Prusa Research, the award-winning Czech 3D printer company created by force-of-nature, Josef Prusa. Matt forwarded me this tweet from Josef:

#goodnews Did you know you can make your own sanitizing products eg. hand gels? @WHO published an easy guide https://t.co/dxZUdACOd7! We are making 1000l for everyone to use here at work and to take home. Big thumbs up to Prusa Polymers team to finding it and making it happen 💪 pic.twitter.com/koEkXr3lOS — Josef Prusa (@josefprusa) March 12, 2020

And Matt writes:

We have converted over some of the equipment we use to make 3D Printers into the production of hand sanitizer for our employees and the office. Kind of an interesting sign of the times and a show of what a flexible company who cares can do.

As Josef's tweet links to, the WHO has instructions [PDF] on how to DIY brew hand-sanitizer in large batches. Of course, you need to make sure you know what you're doing and that you have the right concentrations of ingredients. Also, a humectant (moisturizer) must be in the formulation as a skin care agent. Glycerol is used for this purpose in the WHO recipe. As is all things: Attempt at your own risk and use common sense.

It goes without saying that hand sanitizer is no substitute for 20 seconds of washing with soap. But if you don't have access to soap and water, it beats doing nothing.

Image: Used with permission