How Antibacterial Soap Works

Published May 28, 2008, 6:32 PM

Could the routine use of antibacterial soap increase the presence of drug-resistant bacteria in your home? Learn more about the disadvantages of anti-bacterial soap in this HowStuffWorks podcast.

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Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know from how stuff Works dot Com? Hi, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. I'm a staff writer here at how Stuff Works dot Com. With me, as always is my very attractive and trustee editor Chris Pallette Chrisis, you're gokie. Oh it's great. Thanks asking. Let's talk about antibacterial soap if you want to? Sure? Why not? Chris? Should we or should we not outlaw antibacterial soap? I don't know that we need outlaw antibacterial soap, but you know we need to take a second second look at whether or not we should be using it in all of our daily applications. Why. Well, simply put, um, it's not that much more effective than regular soap, and it can breed stronger bacteria. Yeah. Basically from what I gather, uh, you know, from the research I did writing the article. Uh, it basically provides this uh, this environment or bacteria where the bacteria that happens to survive uh goes on to evolved to be resistant to the antibacterial agents. Right right, Okay, so we've got this this basically we're providing a staging ground for rapid evolution and we're making our own worst enemy. That's true. That's true because, uh, you know, some of the some of the drug resistant strains um can actually you know, be very very harmful and can be fatal in some cases. You know, one that comes to mind is Mercia, the Mercy virus, which is a type of staff and as Rosie O'Donnell, no staff is no laugh, um. And basically Mercia is like a superstaff. It's it's extremely resistant to any kind of drugs. And a lot of people think that that Mercy has been allowed to develop because of antibacterial drugs anti I'm sorry, Well yeah, antibacterial drugs, antibacterial cleaning products, which all together make up a term that I coined in the article, the antibacterial lifestyle. What do you know about that? Well, um, you know, there are a lot of people, as as a parent of a young child, um, you know, I've seen a lot of other parents who are trying to keep their kids away from germs, which is you know, a reasonable concern. So they they buy a lot of antibacterial soaps, they buy antibacterial cleaning products, they go to the store and pick up an antibacterial basket to put their stuff in, or put their kids in the antibacterial card because everywhere sponges kinds of and they've figured out a way to put it into plastics and blankets and and all sorts of things countertops. I think there's a problem with that, and that is that if you if you raise your child then in in completely sanitized environment, then if you're gonna be exposed to any allergens, you can't go out and sanitize the entire world. So when your kid finally goes out to play, they're gonna end up as like a bubble boy or something because they haven't been supposed to any any allergies and haven't been able to form antibodies. I think there's a there's a certain level of dirt you need to have in your house to maintain health. Wouldn't you agree, Well, that's true. I mean if the if the germs are getting stronger by being exposed to the animal microbial antibacterial agents, um, you know, people are not getting stronger by allowing themselves to get over being exposed to these germs. So one side is getting stronger while the other is staying in place, if you will. Essentially we're shooting ourselves in our own feet, you know. And there are other ways to to deal with the problem too. I mean, there are other products that are not necessarily anti uh antibacterial. We were talking about bleach as one. Now it's you know, not something you want laying around on your countertops. It can leave a residue in in a lot of cases, but bleach can um well okay, maybe not all cases, but um, bleach can kill microbes just by uh licening them, by breaching their cell walls, and they really have no defense against that. Yeah, And that's this is where the term for the brand name cleaner Lisol comes from. To lice is to basically completely obliterate a cell. So Lifsol's name means obliterate cells, which I just think is super cool. Yeah. And the reason that that I brought up countertops two is I read about this countertop material that they have in development where um, it's not anim bacterial because it's got a chemical in it, it's antibacterial because it has thousands and thousands of tiny little uh, you know, points on the surface of it that when bacteria hit it, they rupture, and so it kills bacteria, not through the use of some chemical but because this the surface has lots of little points that are that are that pierced the bacteria, but are harmless to your hand because you can't even feel them, which is a you know, scientific way around the around the problem. It's excellent, so you get the best of both worlds. And well, I'll tell you what, after researching this article, I've completely given up using antibacterial soap. All oh. I suspect that the soap they used in the dispensers in the bathroom maybe so, so I'll be lodging a formal complaint. Let's it for us. Be sure to read should antibacterial soap be Outlawed? On how stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Because at how stuff works dot com, let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. M brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you

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