Antibacterial soap – not as clean as it should be
Dec. 21, 2016
It is the mechanical process of washing that rinses off viruses and bacteria from our skin and any plain soap facilitates this. The soap does not kill microbes on our skin. Most infections encountered in the community are viral, and viruses are not killed by anti-bacterial products, however, bacterial are also not killed by the concentration of anti-bacterials found in household soap.
The consensus a few years ago, was that although antibacterial soap is not advantageous over plain soap, it was not thought to do any harm. However, there are increasing concerns that although antibacterial soap did not harm the user it may have increased antibiotic resistance in the community and is being washed into our waterways and oceans harming the environment.
The active ingredients of many antibacterial soaps are triclosan or triclocarban. Interestingly in 2013 the Food and Drug Administration in the US threatened to ban triclosan in soap and required soap manufacturers to prove that antibacterial soap did not cause any harm and was effective. The proof never came and in September this year the FDA announced that it was banning not just triclosan and triclocarban, but 19 products found in antibacterial soap.
We all need to have a high index of suspicion when using any chemicals on our bodies or in our environment, as this episode highlights that sufficient safety checks are not implemented on many of the products we use on a daily basis.
So next time you are buying soap, just go for a plain one rather than an anti-bacterial one. It will be just as effective and probably safer.
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm378393.htm
http://www.dermnetnz.org/topics/antibacterial-soap/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11515080
