Antibacterial Soap Danger Still a Hot Topic

Baack · Sep 30, 2009

It seems like every week we see another major news article on the dangers of antimicrobial soap use in the home. Just yesterday our local newspaper had a two page article that has been syndicated by the Washington Post. I have written about antibacterial soap use before, and this is just an update addressing a few questions I received in email a while back. Most of the information I have gathered on this is readily available on line. If you only have the time to follow one link to information on this subject, I would recommend the Beyond Pesticides fact sheet, available as a PDF file .
The first question was how regular soap works and why should we believe it does as good a job as antibacterial soap? Without getting too technical, soap is simply made up of a base and an acid and has two main purposes. Soap decreases the surface tension of water and adheres to dirt, oil, bacteria, viruses and the like. When you lather the soap, this all combines together and is easily washed down the drain. Antibacterial soap does not do this job any better than regular soap.
The second question was are germ killing products antibacterial and do they pose the same danger as antibacterial products? The simple answer to this is that germ killing products, (those with bleach or other disinfectants), do not contain antibiotics. They are different than antibiotics in that there is no evidence that I can find that they contribute to super bug problems like MRSA. Still, I am concerned enough about our exposure to harsh chemicals that I try to avoid the use of these products also.
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http://willtaft.com/health/antibacterial-soap-danger-still-a-hot-topic/

phroziac · Jan 2, 2010

Hm, i see now. I'd heard about antibacterial soap being bad before,but it still seemed like it would be better...im not gonna use it anymore.

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