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Comments (1)Antibacterial Soaps
Doing more harm than good
Published: December 12, 2006by Linda Lindsay
In the interest of your health and well-being, the Centers for Disease Control would like you to follow this rather surprising advice: quit using antibacterial soaps and wash with plain soap and water instead.
You may not warm to this idea immediately.
But the CDC, along with the American Medical Association and 17 public health groups, have a good reason for making this recommendation: numerous studies have shown that triclosan, the active ingredient in antibacterial soap, is no more effective at preventing infections than plain soap and water.
But there’s more to this recommendation than meets the eye – something the CDC finds far more troubling than triclosan’s mere shortcomings as a soap. In the larger picture, triclosan (and its cousin triclocarban) pose serious and unacceptable risks to human health and the environment. These risks are so great that the Food and Drug Administration has been asked by its advisory panel to ban or restrict the use of these antibacterial agents in household products.
Such a restriction would not be welcome news to manufacturers who have introduced more than 1,500 new triclosan products onto the market in the last six years. Almost 80 percent of hand soaps and one third of bar soaps now contain triclosan. It’s been added to dish soaps and lotions, toothpaste and deodorants, shave gels and lip gloss. You’ll find it in cutting boards, Playskool toys, pens and steering wheels, as well as building products like paint, furniture and laminate flooring. Heck, it’s even in socks and underwear.
It seems that triclosan has found its way into every nook and cranny of our homes. This is largely because manufacturers have convinced us that in order to stay healthy, we need to sterilize every surface of our homes and bodies. But the truth is that this level of hygiene is overkill in most households. In fact, a highly sterile environment produces kids whose immune systems never fully develop, leading to allergies and asthma as they get older. And the irony is, antibacterial products aren’t even keeping us from getting sick. How can this be?
First of all, antibacterials target mostly bacteria (hence their name) and are only mildly effective against other microbes, including cold and flu viruses. Secondly, antibacterial soaps don’t actually kill bacteria – they block an enzyme that is necessary for building cell membranes and reproducing. This process takes time to work. For triclosan to be effective (which, in hospital settings, it is,) you have to lather with it for at least 45 seconds, rinse, and lather again for another 45 seconds. Unless you’re a brain surgeon or obsessive compulsive, you probably don’t do this. I’d frankly worry about you if you did. Go ahead and time yourself the next time you wash your hands – even 30 seconds feels like an eternity. And I guarantee there’s not a kid on the planet who washes their hands for that long unless they’re up to serious mischief with soap bubbles in the bathroom.
Yet most people continue to use antibiotic soap with abandon, oblivious to its shortcomings. And it is this indiscretion that is establishing a frightening trend: every time we use triclosan, we give bacteria another chance to develop resistance to it. If triclosan were limited to hospital use only, bacterial resistance might develop slowly. But every day across the U.S., millions of households are lathering, brushing and scrubbing with a wide variety of antibacterial products, giving the very bacteria we’re trying to destroy abundant opportunities to develop resistance.
It may not sound like such a big deal for bacteria to survive an encounter with a cleaning product. What is a big deal is that as bacteria become resistant to triclosan, there’s a good chance they’re also becoming resistant to life-saving antibiotics.
Though triclosan is not an antibiotic, per se, the way it works and its target site on bacteria are similar to that of antibiotics. This has the scientific community concerned that widespread use of triclosan is speeding the development of resistant bacterial genes and “superbugs.” In fact, lab studies have already found strains of mutated bacteria that are resistant to triclosan – strains that also show resistance to a number of antibiotics. Yikes.
Luckily, regular soap doesn’t cause this same problem. Neither do alcohol-based “hand sanitizers” (see sidebar “Hand sanitizers vs. antibacterials”). Soap works by reducing the surface tension of water and attracting dirt and oils, literally washing microbes from your skin. This process does not lead to resistant bacteria, nor does it endanger aquatic life, an area where triclosan poses a huge threat.
Ninety-five percent of triclosan use occurs in households, and all of this is washed down residential drains and into wastewater treatment plants, where less than a quarter of it is broken down. The other 75 percent resists treatment and goes directly into lakes, streams and rivers, where, unfortunately, it lasts a long time.
When the US Geological Survey tested streams across the country for presence of nearly 100 different chemicals, triclosan was found in some of the highest frequencies and highest concentrations. Once released into nature, triclosan wreaks havoc. It is highly toxic to some species of algae, potentially destroying a critical part of the food chain for many aquatic ecosystems. And scientists found that when triclosan was released into streams, it converted to a particularly toxic form of dioxin in the presence of sunlight, a reaction that undoubtedly happens in nature. Since it is lipophilic in nature, triclosan collects in fatty tissues and accumulates all the way up the food chain.
In 2007, the FDA will decide whether to restrict or ban triclosan from household products. In the meantime, unless someone in your household is immune compromised, leave triclosan where it belongs – in hospitals – and wash your hands with good ol’ soap and water.
Why is triclosan in your underwear?
Biofresh undies! Microban keyboards! These are trade names you may see when fabric or plastic products contain triclosan. You might envision your antibacterial cheese grater, sandals, shoes, towels or blankets zapping all germs on contact and preventing you from getting sick. But in most cases, triclosan is added to protect the integrity of the material and prevent odors, mildew and fungus from forming.
Are humans storing triclosan in their bodies?
One study of nursing mothers confirmed that triclosan can accumulate in the body and pass through breast milk. The women who tested positive had triclosan levels high enough to potentially alter their infants’ thyroid function during crucial developmental stages.
Hand sanitizers vs. antibacterials
The active ingredient in Purell, Germ-X and other “hand sanitizers” is ethyl alcohol, which kills germs on contact, does not require water, and does not lead to bacterial resistance. Hand sanitizers are so good at killing germs that the CDC would like to see these products replace antibacterial soap in hospitals. Hand sanitizers tend to dry out the skin and are overkill for most situations, but they come in handy when soap and water aren’t available. Make sure any product you buy states that it contains “62% ethyl alcohol.”
~ Feel free to send comments or ideas to linda@moonshineink.com.
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