cat_n30

I used 3 products, carex handwash (which I see my GP has by his sink) Cuticura Alcohol hand Gel (which claims to kill 99.9% of bacteria within 15 seconds) and a basic soap. I did a control, as suggested and just used water. A thumb/finger print was placed in the Agar dish (pre washing) then 5 mins after the application, and an hour after application.(fresh agar plates obviously!) The experiment was repeated only twice, I appreciate that repetion is best. The agar plates were labelled and sealed incubating for the same amount of time, at the same temperature, and monitored. The results (I am having to count the amount of 'dots') but some of the plates are a huge blob of bacteria, and I'm guessing that I will have to estimate by size. Any advice on better practice would be welcome? The overall 'WINNER' is looking like the Carex handwash. Something that surprised me. I did expect the Alcohol Gel to do much better. Any advice about writing up the experiment would be very welcome too. Thanks for the great responses Cat

I am a college student coming toward the end of my course. My final project I have compared the efficiency of handwash, soap and alcohol gels. Using nutrient agar plates to count the bacteria before, 5 minutes after and an hour after (using each of the products). I have my results, but wondered if anyone else has any useful information for me?