Qore24 (Nano) Hand Sanitizer Testing
I did these experiments with Qore-24. The company changed the name from Qore-24 to Nano. I'm not sure if they made any changes to the product itself.
Qore-24 (now called Nano)
Qore-24TM is a very exciting hand sanitizer spray that promises to kill germs for 24 hours after application. Its active ingredient, AmosilQ, creates a barrier layer of microscopic spikes all over your skin. These spikes kill germs by poking holes in them. It covalently bonds to your skin and stays on for up to 24 hours even with hand washing. It is non-toxic and none of it is absorbed into your body, according to the company. Is it the miracle that we all have been waiting for? I wanted to test Qore-24 for its "immediate kill" ability. After work, my husband put his "dirty" (but visibly clean) right hand fingertips onto an agar plate. Then I sprayed 20 sprays of Qore-24 on his left hand. I rubbed it in and let it dry for 2 minutes. Then he pressed his Qore-24 treated left fingers into the agar. As you can see, Qore-24 did an excellent job killing the bacteria!
Qore-24 Immediate Kill
How well does Qore-24 work if you only use 2 sprays?
In my experiments, I have been using tons of sanitizer to fully cover the hands. Most people aren't really using 20 sprays. They are putting 2-3 sprays on one palm and then rub their hands together. Then they assume that everything has been killed. I wanted to test this. After work, my husband pressed the dirty fingers on one hand onto an agar plate. Then I sprayed 2 sprays of Qore-24 onto his other hand. I rubbed it in up to his fingers as best I could wearing a gloved hand paying careful attention to his finger tips. (I didn't want him to rub his hand together because his other hand already had agar goo on it.) It dried quickly and he pressed his treated fingers/thumb onto an agar plate. As you can see, there is still a lot of growth on that plate. I think we all now know, that whatever type of hand sanitizer you use, it is important to use A LOT of it if you actually want to kill most of the germs.
How well does Qore-24 work on dirty / muddy hands?
As you can see in the results above, the alcohol hand sanitizer (Clorox Hand Sanitizer Spray) did not work well at all if the hands were soiled with dirt. I decided to test and see if Qore-24 worked better on dirty hands. My children, Jon and Katie Scarlett, got their hands dirty outside. Then they placed their dirty right hands on the agar plate. Then we sprayed 20 sprays of Qore-24 on the dirty left hand and I rubbed it in. I was impressed because the Qore-24 actually took the dirt OFF their hands and they looked clean afterwards. Then they pressed their Qore-24 treated left hands onto a plate. After 18 hours of incubation, this is what the plates looked like. I am very impressed! Qore-24 did an excellent job killing germs on dirty hands! This is a good hand sanitizer to take on a picnic!
Does Qore-24 continue to work all day?
Since Qore-24 is supposed to continue working all day, I wanted to test whether or not spraying Qore 24 on kids' hands before school actually translated to LESS LIVE bacteria on their hands at the end of the school day. I had my son Jon (2nd grade) a neighbor Abby (2nd grade), and a neighbor, Molly, (Kindergarten) try it out. Before school, I had the children put their right hands into their pocket (to make sure no spray accidentally got on the right hands). Then I sprayed tons of Qore-24 onto their LEFT hands. I used 20 sprays on each hand. Their hands were soaked and dripping. I wanted to make sure that there was no question about whether or not enough spray was used. I rubbed the spray into their hands myself. They held their hands in the air until they were completely dry. Then they went off to school. They were told to wash their hands as they normally would at school. Each child washed their hands once or twice during the day at school. After school (7 hours and 45 minutes after application), they came back to my house. I had them hold their hands up in the air for 1 minute to give any recently touched germs a chance to die. I looked at their hands and none of them were visibly dirty. Then they placed their right "dirty" fingers into an agar plate and their left "Qore-24" fingers into another plate. The plates were incubated for 20 hours at 95 degrees F to allow any LIVE bacteria or fungus to grow. If the product works like they claim, there should be much less bacteria on the plates where the hands were treated with Qore-24.
7.5 hours after Qore-24 application
As you can see, my results don't show any significant difference in the amount of LIVE bacteria on each hand. This was the second time that I had done this experiment. I had done it 1 week earlier with my son Jon. Here are my son Jon's results from that first test. This time I sprayed his right hand with Qore-24. Even with the bad lighting this photo was taken in, you can see that the amounts of bacteria on both hands are essentially the same.
I also tested Qore-24 on my husband. I sprayed at least 20 sprays on his left hand before work at 7:45am. His right hand hid in his pocket while I rubbed the Qore-24 into his left hand. He held it up in the air to dry and left for work. He had a long day that day and didn't get home to put his fingers on the agar plates until 7:30pm. So, it had been almost 12 hours. His big fingers barely fit into the plate so all he really managed to do was get his 4 fingertips and his thumb in there. He also pressed too hard and poked some holes. Regardless, there isn't a significant difference in the amount of bacteria on the Qore-24 treated left hand verses the untreated right hand.
Just in case the Qore-24 results worked better for a shorter time period, I tried a 3 hour experiment. I sprayed one of my son Jon's hands and one of my husband's hands with tons of Qore-24 at 5pm before they left for a Laser Tag birthday party. Neither of them washed their hands or used hand sanitizer at the party. They put their fingers on the agar plates when they got home at 8pm. As always, I had them hold their hands up in the air for 1 minute to give any recently touched germs time to be killed before they put their fingers on the agar plate. The left plate in each photo is the unsprayed hand and the right plate is the Qore 24 treated hand. Unfortunately, I still don't see any significant difference.
3 hours after Qore-24 application
My experimental results have shown that Qore-24 is an excellent hand sanitizer for "immediate kill" even on soiled hands, but I have not been able to show that it continues to work all day. Qore24 has also not been shown to kill norovirus so it is not on my list of favorites.