no alcohol necessary for injections and testing

Best thing to do is to stop using alcohol completely, both for disinfecting the top of the insulin vial and for skin prep for injections and finger sticks. Ordinary hygiene and using your common sense (keep the insulin vial in its own container, never share needles, all of the usual stuff) is all the cleanliness precautions you need. Alcohol has actually been shown to dry out the skin and allow infections to start, rather than prevent them. The doc's offices and hospitals still use alcohol because it's universal protocol, plus in a clinic setting, the problem of cross-contamination is ever-present, but those are not issues in the home setting.~BK~