Do you use antibacterial soap?

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Our culture's cleanliness obsession has been fed by a booming business in household products. We spend $1 billion annually on soaps and detergents, toys and cutting boards, bedsheets and toothbrushes, all of them treated with chemical compounds designed to kill the germs that cling to them. The problem about our obsession with killing germs, some scientists and public health advocates warn, is that it may ultimately do us more harm than good. Antibacterial ingredients, once successfully used to prevent transmission of disease-causing microorganisms among patients, particularly in hospitals are being added to products used in healthy households, though an added health benefit has not been observed. These products are believed to weaken the immune system, which could lead to a greater chance of allergies in children, and their possible link to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Major marketing breakthroughs came when companies figured out how to put the antimicrobial compounds into more than just soap. Hand sanitizers were swiftly followed by germ-killing plastics and synthetic fibers, and suddenly nearly every product in your house -- from air filters to wallpaper, bathroom appliances, door frames, food storage containers and the kitchen sink -- could be part of the fight against bugs. Check your computer keyboard; chances are it was treated with a film of Microban, one of the leading trade names for triclosan. For many Americans, soap -- the plain old soap your grandmother used -- is simply not enough. Plain old soap relied for its chemistry primarily on animal and vegetable fat, and its cleaning power came essentially from its ability to create suds and lather, as the soap molecules formed a thin film around dirt, allowing it to be washed away under running water. Down the drain go not only bacteria but also viruses, such as those that cause the common cold. Compounds like chlorine, alcohol and peroxide (which kill immediately and at random rather than inhibiting the growth of bacteria) were often added to give soap extra cleansing kick. Those products are also commonly found in travel wipes and towelettes. Adding specifically antibacterial agents seemed a natural next steP. sCientists don't dispute that these chemicals can kill bacteria, they argue there's no evidence they do any good. Scientists have discovered high levels of triclosan and triclocarban -- two of the common compounds found in soaps and detergents -- in our ecosystem. According to a U.S. Geological Survey report from 2002, the substances can be found in nearly 60 percent of our streams and rivers. The chlorine that is routinely added to wastewater, McNeill says, reacts with triclosan. The chlorinated triclosan, in the presence of sunlight, is transformed in a reaction that forms dioxin -- not the most toxic type of dioxin, but one that may be harmful to aquatic life and, as a result, the food chain. Do you think antibacterial soap is beneficial or do you have first hand experience of when you started to use these products? Were you healthier during that time. How do you feel about the situation?