They are very effective disinfectants and the alcohol wipes are used to kill all bacteria on the skin surface before puncturing it to keep the microbes from entering the body tissue.Alcohol wipes are very useful in situations where water and soap are unavailable. For example, you go on a picnic with your folks at the beach and play around in the sand and the seawater, finding a source of clean water and soap to clean up may not be possible and in such cases alcohol wipes or rubs play a very important role. They are portable, usable and disposable. In big clinical setups, using disposable wipes is preferred over primitive ways of using cotton and bottled alcohol.