21 Oct 2005
Do antibacterial soaps work?

Lot's of folks tend to blame the growing resistance of microbes to antibiotics on their overuse by medical doctors. Or on the common practice of dosing ruminants with mass quantities so that they can more efficiently process the grain from the feedlot factory farms. No doubt those are important contributors to the problem. But ...

This article highlights the overuse of soaps as a contributing factor, but it's seemingly an epidemic (pun intended) to be "antibacterial" in many, many common household items, from pillows to cutting boards, rugs and even kitty litter. We are slowly suffusing our environment with antibiotics, and there's gonna be Hel to pay one of these days for our ignorance and arrogance.

Antibacterial soaps and body washes in the household aren't any more effective in reducing illness than regular soap, and could potentially contribute to bacterial resistance to antibiotics, experts told a government advisory panel Thursday.

(link) [CNN]

Update: Asahel follows up on this by trotting out a century old poem and revealing that one of the more common ingredients in modern antibacterial products is listed as a broad spectrum pesticide by the EPA! And it's not even a medical antibiotic - it's a chemical antiseptic which may harbor dioxins! What are we doing do ourselves, and why are we doing it?

00:00 /Agriculture | 2 comments | permanent link