They found it was no more effective, both experiments indicating that there is “no significant difference” between the effects of plain soap and antibacterial soap when used under “real life” conditions, they concluded.
Advertisement
“Nowadays, industry produces a variety of commercial soaps described as “antibacterial” or “antimicrobial”. (Indeed, when the soap was left on the bacterial samples for 9 hours, it worked better than the regular soap, the investigators found.) It’s also possible that ingredients in the soap hampered triclosan’s anti-microbial abilities, the researchers said. The investigators also tested the soaps on people’s dirty hands. Since nobody is expected wash her hands for nine hours, the lesson seems to be that when it comes to washing your hands, you don’t need fancy antibacterial brands.
Antibacterial hand soaps containing triclosan – a chemical flagged as potentially risky – are not much better at killing germs than regular soap, researchers have said.
“It should be banned to exaggerate the effectiveness of… products which can confuse consumers,” study co-author Min Suk Rhee told Malay Mail Online.
A new study in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy says antibacterial soaps are no better than ordinary soaps at killing bacteria.
The study examined the bactericidal effects of triclosan against 20 bacteria strains in petri dishes including Campylobacter, Enterococcus, Escherichia, Listeria, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Shigella and Pseudomonas.
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…
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.
The most simple and effective way to prevent transmitting all kinds of diseases is to wash your hands with soap and water.
Likely as a result of the FDA pressure, the authors cite previous research of theirs showing that many soap manufacturers have stopped using triclosan in recent years, but it’s a change that hasn’t been made vocal to the rest of the public. One study even found that long-term exposure to triclosan might cause cancer in mice.
Advertisement
The anti-bacterial soaps that were used in these experiments all contained a chemical compound called triclosan. But there are still some triclosan products on the market, and not all consumers and advertisers have gotten the message about triclosan, Rhee writes.
