Is Leaving Hand Sanitizer In Your Car A Hazard? We Explain!

Recently a piece of news surfaced on the Internet where a car burst into flames, and reports suggested that the fire was caused due to the hand sanitiser kept inside it. Is it true? Does it mean keeping hand sanitiser in your car will cause a fire? Well, sit tight because we will explain if keeping that pocket-sized sanitiser is safe or not!

We all know that one of the primary elements used in making sanitiser is alcohol, and it is flammable. And with the increased cases of COVID-19 cases in the country, people have started keeping pocket-sized bottles of hand sanitisers in their homes and cars and mostly everywhere.

The incident on Delhi roads with the car burning into flames and the driver losing life might or might not have been caused by the sanitisers. Experts said that if 'keeping hand sanitisers in a car can ignite a flame', the logical answer is NO.

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The lowest temperature where the ethyl alcohol, which is also the primary ingredient in the making of sanitisers, will auto-ignite is 363 degrees Celcius. Metals such as tin, lead, and aluminium will heat at this temperature since it is so hot.

Yes, the tropical season in India allows the temperature inside of the car to rise to a level that you can even fry an egg. Or get skin burns, or worse, the fire could kill a child. But the car bursting into flames is just out of the question. Still, there's a saying that 'Precaution is better than Cure'.

We explain that above statement now! By logic, keeping a hand sanitiser in your car is not a hazard, but the problem comes if held loosely. Suppose you have saved a bottle of loosely packed sanitiser on the dashboard of your vehicle. And when you enter the car the next afternoon and try to light a cigarette as soon as you get inside, you and your vehicle could be smoked up in seconds.

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This will happen because the vapours will keep building inside the closed car that eventually becomes a gas chamber. And when that happens, it causes fire by lighting up a cigarette or in the ignition or even when you use the horn, the experts said.

So it is a personal choice whether you want to keep the hand sanitiser in your car or not. But if you do, just follow the precautionary steps that will not leave you or your loved ones in trouble. Safety measures suggest that hand sanitisers should be kept in a cool and ventilated space and tightly packed. Prefer an air-tight container!