It’s time to prove that they don’t, and then show them how to.
GlitterBug products help to teach good hand hygiene by visually demonstrating to students that their current techniques are not effective. This makes it easier for you to teach proper techniques.
We have three products, each with a specific area of hygiene in mind…
GlitterBug Potion is applied to students’ hands and rubbed in all over, including the wrist. It dries invisible.
When they wash their hands, the GlitterBug Potion will be removed with good handwashing technique.
However, the Potion will still be present on any areas that are missed by the washing, and this will show up under UV light.
NOTE: What you are seeing glow is GlitterBug Potion. It does NOT make germs glow. Instead, it is pretending to be the germs.
Commonly, the palms will be well cleaned, but the finger webbing, nail beds, wrists and edge of the hand will still show leftover Potion.
Hand sanitiser works when germs on the hands are killed by contact with the sanitiser. The only way to effectively sanitise your hands is to thoroughly cover your hands with the sanitiser. Germs that do not come into contact with the sanitiser will not be killed.
GlitterBug Gel is given to the students to rub into their hands as it it was sanitiser. If you want to be sneaky, you can remove the GlitterBug label and tell them it is sanitiser.
The GlitterBug Gel dries invisible. The UV light will show areas that HAVE been touched by the Gel. If GlitterBug Gel was a hand sanitiser (which it isn’t) then they would be sanitised.
What you are looking for are the areas that are NOT glowing. These are the areas that have not been sanitised.
Typically most students will have glowing palms and virtually nothing else. You need to check between the fingers, on the back of the hand and around the wrists.
If germs were visible, we would be a lot more aware of how easily they can spread. That’s where GlitterBug Powder comes in.
Sprinkle a commonly touched item such as a doorknob, sign-in folder, work surface, etc, with the Powder. It is invisible to the naked eye.
Allow the students to interact with the surface for a while, and then track the spread of the Powder with a UV light. You will find it on clothes, seats, ears, nostrils and everywhere the students have been.
GlitterBug Powder is ideal at showing how something invisible, like germs, can be transferred without you knowing about it.
World Hand Hygiene Day is a reminder that clean hands save lives, but healthcare workers need more than posters. They need practical, repeated training in when and how to wash or sanitise their hands.
At the Easter Show, one minute you’re patting an farm animal and the next you’re eating a dagwood. That is exactly why good handwashing matters – because germs are real even when they are completely invisible.
Nearly half of hospital toilet users aren’t washing their hands, according to a UK-Danish study – highlighting the urgent need for smarter, more engaging hygiene training like GlitterBug’s visual feedback tools.
We received an amazing GlitterBug science report from a Grade 5 student who clearly understands the scientific method. We think you’ll love it too,
We’re struggling to get reliable stock of the UV flashlights and we think we know why.
No single defence against infection is perfect. They all have some area of failure, like the holes in a slice of Swiss cheese. That’s why multiple layers of defence are required.