I know that many people here use antibacterial soaps and other antibacterial products to sanitize, for fear of becoming ill. However, on another board I frequently visit, there was a discussion relating to this, and I thought I should post some info. I know that in other threads people have posted about the possible harms of antibacterial products to the environment(more recently Alvin in the Q&A thread), and how regular soap and water is all you really need. This just reiterates this:


Antibacterial ingredients have become so prevalent in the United States that there are now antibacterial soaps, laundry detergents, shampoos, toothpastes, body washes, dish soaps and many household cleaning products.

Consumers use these products because they have been marketed as an effective and necessary way to lower the risk of infection. However, many scientists fear that the widespread use could lead to a strain of resistant bacteria, or "superbugs," and cause the ingredients to lose effectiveness for the times when they really are needed.

The first major test in people's homes has found that using antibacterial products apparently offers little protection against the most common germs. The study represents the first time scientists have attempted to evaluate the products under real-life, day-to-day conditions in homes.

In the study, published in the March 2, 2004 journal Annals of Internal Medicine, people who used antibacterial soaps and cleansers developed cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms just as often as people who used products that did not contain antibacterial ingredients.

The researchers pointed out that most of the symptoms experienced by the study participants are typically caused by viruses, which the antibacterial soaps don’t protect against. And for the symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea, which may be caused by bacteria, the people who used regular soaps had no greater risk than those who used antibacterial products.

Further, many traditional medical circles now accept the hygiene hypothesis, which centers on the idea that children need to be exposed to some bacteria in early childhood in order to strengthen their immune systems. Children who are not exposed to common bacteria, which are wiped out by antibacterial soap, may be more prone to allergies and asthma.



http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/4597


Okay, so this isn't exactly an accepted "academic" source; however, these are, and they say essentially the same thing:


http://www.colorado.edu/PWR/occasions/soap.html


http://van.hep.uiuc.edu/van/qa/secti...ing_Else/Healt h/20011104182734.htm


http://www.ib.uit.no/~arilde/bio100c...DailyGerms.pdf


This isn't meant to scare anyone- just to prevent people from using products that aren't needed, or that can cause more problems in the future.


*amber*