Safe to say we’re all familiar with the importance of maintaining a clean and hygienic environment in order to sustain good health. And lately with so many health scares and threats about (most recent one being the H1N1 virus), the call for sanitization screams out at us from every corner.
Everyone is afraid of being in contact with contaminated sources- a cough, a sneeze, or even just a simple weeze would leaves us holding our breath whilst running from the door. We wash our hands again and again not just with soap but with antibacterial soap- to be on the extra safe side. Nothing wrong with that you say; we are just washing our hands with a special soap designed to kill those nasty germs and bacteria…
After all that is whole purpose behind washing our hands is it not?
Well yes, but while the part about killing illness causing germs being not wrong may be true, it is by no means harmless and without posing of impact.
You see sometimes too much of a good thing ends up a bad thing and the use of antibacterial soap is no exception to the rule. In fact this rule transcends to include all Antibacterial and antimicrobial agents (laundry detergents, toothpastes, body washes, and many household cleaning products make up the list).
Traditionally developed for and introduced in hospitals to prevent the spread of infection, these ‘super products’ soon made their way into the lives of everyday commercial consumers. The result, more microbes are exposed to and develop resistances to these agents. What’s wrong with that you ask? Well think about it, the active ingredient in most antibacterial products is triclosan, an antibacterial agent that kills bacteria and inhibits bacterial growth. So far so good right?
Right, until you realise that just as antibiotics kill more than the disease-causing bacteria they were directed to, they also kill every other susceptible bacteria. But isn’t that a great thing? Killing as many bacteria as possible?
Simple answer, No!
You see, the overall consequence of clearing the ecosystem of susceptible bacteria, is the allowance of the surviving resistant bacteria to multiply and dominate the environment as there is now literally no competition. This phenomenon is better known as the ‘rise of the drug-resistant “superbugs” – bacteria that evolves to become more virulent than they ever were before.
To top that off, triclosan doesn’t just kill bacteria, it also has been proven to kill human cells.
So if the effect is so alarming, why are these products still on the market? Why not just strip them off the shelves and save the planet from being exposed to super killer mutant bacteria? Well likely because taking such a drastic measure would seem like a rather premature decision. We do still need these products…
The safe alternative is to look to nature itself. Mother Nature did supply us with natural antiseptics that serve the same purpose as the chemical induced ones. Simple elements like lemon juice, rosemary and thyme have proven antibacterial properties.
In fact there are even lines of therapeutic-grade essential-oil enhanced products which attest better effectiveness than the chemical version. Furthermore, they don’t contribute to the bacterial mutation problem.
Here’s an amusing fact: A study of how people use medicine is called pharmacoepidemiology and the abuse of antibacterial products is now a major point of study within it.
