PURELL Hand Sanitizer was invented in 1988 by GOJO to meet the needs of healthcare providers and restaurants operators looking for ways to reduce the spread of germs. Healthcare workers needed to kill germs on their hands when they couldn’t get to soap and water. And restaurant operators needed extra germ-fighting protection to reduce the risk of food contamination. PURELL Hand Sanitizer was a great success, not only because it was effective at killing 99.99% of most common germs, but because it was convenient, gentle and a pleasure to use.