Chemical Dependent Society, Antibacterial soaps

That’s exactly what we are. I haven’t posted in a long time but I was just sitting around on my toilet, doing my business (#2 if you must know) and I was yearning for something to read. I had forgotten bring my reading material, so I reached for something that had words on it: the hand soap on the counter. Guess what? It was the Dial brand antibacterial hand soap. I don’t remember buying it, because I don’t buy antibacterial hand soap, but it gave me an idea for a quick post. Looking down the list of ingredients, I ran across a couple of nasty-looking names. After doing some research, I’m surprised these things are even in our soap. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me shudder. Let’s just have a look at what I found and oh of course I’ll first talk about antibacterial hand soaps and why they aren’t so good.

The concern about antibacterial hand soaps has been brought to the attention of consumers time and time again, yet we still demand it (at least most of us do). What you might not know is that antibacterial hand soaps are both harmful to the environment, and can pose a risk to human health in the long run as well. Even with these concerns, there is no agency that specifically monitors them. People use them all the time, yet they don’t understand the fundamental difference between regular hand soaps and antibacterial hand soaps. Regular hand soaps are effective with proper hand washing procedures. There is no need to use antibacterial soaps because regular soaps clean just as well, according to the University of Michigan School of Public Health, which reviewed many studies pertaining to the effectiveness of antibacterial products. As it turns out, the active ingredient in a variety of popular hand soaps is Triclosan. For healthy individuals, Triclosan has no significant impact when compared with soaps that don’t have it.

So what’s the problem?

Doctors and researchers are afraid that Triclosan can create so called “superbugs”, which are resistant to widely used antibiotics, which would pose a serious risk in managing infections. The FDA announced that there was no evidence which proved that antibacterial soaps did a better job for preventing infection. However, many doctors are recommending antibacterial soaps for individuals who are very prone to infection.

What about the environment?

That’s another big problem. It has been shown that Triclosan, when combined with chlorine in water can produce small amounts of compounds that become endocrine disruptors. We’ll save endocrine disruptors for another day, but in short, they disrupt the functions of hormones in the human body, which can lead to severe problems. These problems have been documents in many amphibians, since they absorb these compounds right through their skin. Triclosan can also produce chloroform gas when combined with chlorine. The EPA has labeled chloroform as a possible carcinogen.

About Dial hand soap: Here are some ingredients: yellow 5, tetrasodium EDTA. There’s yellow 5 in soap too? Apparently it’s a pretty widespread compound. Tetrasodium EDTA is actually a persistant organic pollutant and is widely used. That means it lasts in the environment for a long long long long time. Scary though. Personally, I think I’ll skip the antibacterial hand soaps.

Be wary of antibacterial soaps and use them only when absolutely necessary. There have been movements to get some product lines off the market, spearheaded by environmental organizations. Will you join them? Or do you think there is nothing to worry about? READ YOU LABELS, FOLKS!