In a Gojo-funded study published in 2000 in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, 32 nurses used Purell for two weeks for an average of about twice an hour during their workdays.

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Richard Hubbard, professor of respiratory epidemiology at Nottingham City Hospital and a spokesman for the British Lung Foundation, said breath analysis was already being used to diagnose children with asthma.

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Sinai Hospital, and in the International Journal of Epidemiology a year before.

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Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Dr Webb suggested the pattern was linked to "increased pressures on doctors and hospital staff to 'clear' patients at times when they have other patients to see".

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