If soap with triclosan has harmful long-term effects, and if it performs no better than regular soap, “it makes us question why these products even exist”, he said.
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Fear sells, and marketers know it. But as far as hygiene goes, proof is mounting that you don’t need to buy anti-bacterial soap to protect yourself against the germs of others.
If by 2016 they aren’t able to show that antibacterial soap is indeed more effective, FDA will force manufacturers to take any labels or packaging that claims that antibacterial soaps are more effective off the shelves.
Lead author on the paper, Dr. Rhee, commented that: “advertisement and consumer belief regarding the effectiveness of antibacterial soaps needs to be addressed”.
Now a study in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy reports that when it comes to normal hand-washing there is “no significant difference” between plain soap and antibacterial soap in terms of killing bacteria.
Researchers found that the chemical triclosan is one of the most common ingredients in antibacterial soaps and generates $1 billion sales annually in the United States, as reported by Malay Mail Online.
Mar 4, 2007 – A new study found that an antibacterial known as triclosan widely used in a range of household products to help sterilize hands could do more…
Ordinary soap may be just as effective at combating bacteria as antibacterial products, according to a new study.
Once the bacteria were done with this unexpected bath, the researchers counted them. Like the lab study Rhee performed, this in-person experiment found again that the antibacterial soap was no better than the regular soap.
To evaluate triclosan’s germ-killing abilities, the team placed 20 unsafe bacteria strains, including Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enteritidis in petri dishes with either antibacterial or regular soap.
Several soapmakers have already stopped using triclosan, he added.
The scientists recreated the conditions of human hand washing by exposing the bacteria for 20 seconds at 22C, defined as room temperature, and 40C, defined as warm temperature, to triclosan with a concentration of 0.3%, the maximum allowed by law.
Both soaps tested contained the same ingredients except for the addition of triclosan to the antibacterial version.
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They were then told to wash their hands for 30 seconds using either antibacterial or regular soap and 40-degree water. For instance, while triclosan is not now known to be hazardous to humans, its use has been linked to adverse effects like antibiotic resistance, endocrine disruption in animals and toxicity in certain types of aquatic life.
