CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -- Mom was right. A new study by infection control specialists at UNC Hospitals confirms that the best way to get germs off your hands is with plain old soap and water.

The researchers tested 14 hand hygiene agents plus tap water against specific bacteria and viruses applied to the hands of 62 adult volunteers. Soap and water, or microbial soap and water, proved the most effective at removing viruses and bacteria.

"Based on these findings, I'd put my hands in my mouth after routine sink washing for 10 seconds," said Emily Sickbert-Bennett, a public health epidemiologist with the UNC Health Care System and the UNC School of Public Health.

Sickbert-Bennett is the lead author of the study, conducted as part of her UNC public health master's degree work from 2000 to 2002 and published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

The study divided the hand-washing agents into three methods: five waterless alcohol-based rubs, two waterless hand wipes with chemicals, five hand-wash products with anti-microbial agents, plain soap without antibacterials, and tap water alone.

The volunteers doused their hands in common, hardy strains of a bacteria and virus, washed their hands using one of the methods for 10 seconds and then measured the quantity of remaining germs.

They repeated the steps 10 times to measure each method's effectiveness after repeated exposures.

After just one wash, hand gels and soaps worked about the same, removing 99 percent of the bugs.

But after multiple washes, regular soap and warm water was most effective at removing the virus. For bacteria, anti-microbial soap was the most effective, removing 99 percent of bacteria after multiple washes. Regular soap and water was the next most effective, followed by tap water alone, and then hand rubs, the researchers found.

Hand wipes were the least effective, getting just half the germs.

The germs used in the study are more hardy than the flu virus, Sickbert-Bennett said, so any cleansing method capable of wiping out the test virus is almost certain to be even more effective against flu.

The UNC researchers looked at 10-second scrubs, rather than longer washes studied in past trials, because they found that 10 seconds is the average time UNC health care personnel actually spend washing their hands.

Soap and water works better over repeated use because water removes germs by washing them down the drain, Sickbert-Bennett said.

"(With) the waterless rubs and wipes, you never rinse your hands," she said. "You are just rubbing a chemical into your hand and letting it dry."

Hand-rub solutions are still considered highly effective, especially if there's no available alternative.

"The hand gels have basically really found their place in hospitals," said Dr. Jeffrey Engel, state epidemiologist. "Hand gels in hospitals are always accompanied with a hand-washing policy."

But he said hand gels are less effective if hands are visibly soiled, such as when children became violently sick by a strain of E. coli bacteria linked to a petting zoo at the State Fair in the fall. A Department of Agriculture task force is reviewing petting zoo sanitation policies.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.