CleanWell

One more weapon can be added to the inner-germophobe's arsenal, and we are one step closer to controlling organisms and viruses that have plagued us since the beginning.

The first ecofriendly, all-natural hand sanitizer brand CleanWell is launching a Foaming Desktop Hand Sanitizer sometime this month, Marketing Director Holly Bornstein said last week in an interview with CleanWell partner Honest Foods. Currently all CleanWell products are in spray-form only, and with a new product for those who prefer foam sanitizers, CleanWell's popularity should receive a substantial boost.
Not that it needs it, though: introduced just in February 2008 by a San Francisco start-up, CleanWell has been wildly popular, being offered in fine retailers from Target to Wholefoods and used by chemical-wary moms to green types to President Obama himself (who became a fan on the campaign trail). CleanWell was also a finalist in the 2008 International Design Excellence Awards. I myself just discovered CleanWell while waiting to check out at Whole Foods (1 oz. selling for $2.49).

This is well-timed given the rising concerns about alcohol and chemical-based santizers, from dry skin to alcohol-poisoning (several sanitizers are frangranced for child-appeal, but dangerously so) to environmental damage (released last month, a report on the toxic, hormone-disrupting sanitizing agent Triclosan found in 76% of all liquid soaps to be one of the most frequently detected chemicals in US streams according to the US Geological Survey).

To get down to it, what makes CleanWell different from the recent plethora of alcohol-free sanitizers assaulting the market (Viraban, SafeHands, Soapopular, Pro-Tex and Hands2Go which all use benzalkonium chloride) is it's active ingredient: Thyme oil. Thus CleanWell is void of ingestion risk and the "Poison Control Center" label, being 100% natural and biodegradable. However it is just as effective, killing 99.99% of germs including E. coli, Salmonella, Staph and MRSA bacteria as well as flu viruses. Even better, its patented formula of plant oils is derived from rapidly renewable natural resources and sustainably grown without pesticides or fertilizer.

So remarkable was the product that with the support of the global design consultancy Ideo, CleanWell went from concept to design within two years.

What started the idea was when the founder, Sam DeAth (last name not published on CleanWell website for obvious reasons), discovered his son Conor had Severe Immune Deficiency (a.k.a. "Bubble-Boy Syndrom") and almost all of their household products contained toxins that were just another tax on Conor's already struggling immune system. Thus working with his mother Joy, an aromacologist, and scientists at a environmental micriobiology laboratory, Mr. DeAth spearheaded the project to develop the formula. Then with the help of Dr. Larry Weiss (now Chief Technology Officer) and Ideo, CleanWell came into the market.

And with good timing, too. According to data company ACNielsen in a USAToday article last year, "through late 2006, sales in supermarkets and drugstores alone were up 14.4% from 2005 to $70 million, with Purell the market leader at $36.6 million. That growth built on a huge 53.5% rise in 2005." Then with swine flu on the news this year, demand for sanitizers skyrocketed: from April to August Americans spent 54% more on sanitizers in stores than in 2008.