{"id":1082,"date":"2012-10-01T12:37:58","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T16:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/?p=1082"},"modified":"2023-10-07T11:34:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T15:34:03","slug":"the-problem-with-anti-bacterial-soaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/2012\/10\/the-problem-with-anti-bacterial-soaps\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with Anti-Bacterial Soaps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read full article here:\u00a0WHAT\u2019S THE DEAL WITH ANTI-BACTERIAL SOAP?<\/a>\u00a0on Ecosalon<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

\"Resistent<\/a>

Resistent bacteria is evolving<\/p><\/div>\n

America has declared war, and it\u2019s not against high-waisted jeans. (Though on that subject, consider me General Patton.) Germs are the new enemy and we\u2019re engaged in hand-to-hand combat with them. Recall\u00a0the sight of Britney Spears<\/a>\u00a0traipsing across gas station bathrooms barefoot, which horrified people more than her shaved head or marriage to K-Fed. Americans hate germs, and anti-bacterial gels, sprays, soaps and wipes are the new norm for most handbags.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not saying people are wrong. If we\u2019re going to go full neurotic pancakes \u2013 I have a reoccurring nightmare where I am in a toilet stall too small and fall onto the uncovered toilet, which looks clean enough. I don\u2019t like the germs either and was as pleased as anyone when anti-bacterial products appeared on the market a few years ago.<\/p>\n

But are anti-bacterial products really the best thing for America since the \u201cpie versus cupcake\u201d wars? I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a doctor out there that will tell you to forgo washing your hands, especially in times of serious health crisis. Hand washing is the first line of defense in staying healthy and keeping others the same. So yes, wash your hands and enjoy doing so. But if you are using anti-bacterial soaps, there are a couple points to consider.<\/p>\n

First point \u2013 bacteria evolves. Experts point out that the over-consumption of anti-bacterial products is leading to Overusing antibacteria. As\u00a0Discovery Health reports<\/a>, \u201cby using more antibacterial products, people may encourage bacteria to evolve and become more virulent than they were before. Overusing antibacterial products is now a major point of study within the field of pharmacoepidemiology \u2013 the study of how people use medicines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, when you use anti-bacterial soaps or gels, a few bacteria may survive the first application. And then what happens is basically War of the Worlds meets your skin. Microbiologists report that this leaves\u00a0a residual \u201csoup\u201d on your skin<\/a>\u00a0where only the strongest survive \u2013 and promptly mutate into resistant bacteria. Yes, it\u2019s H.G. Wells\u2019 classical tale but without\u00a0Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning<\/a>. And also? It\u2019s taking place in your pores.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, some of you may decide to keep using anti-bacterial soaps and gels. Hey, we don\u2019t judge. But allow us to present our second point \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of bad stuff in the traditional products. The old-standby, Purell, gets a\u00a0moderate hazard rating<\/a>\u00a0from Skin Deep. It contains ingredients linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, developmental toxicity and more. Many anti-bacterial products contain\u00a0triclosan<\/a>, which does most of the germ-slaying. Skin Deep rates this a high hazard due to various dangers. And the National Resources Defense Council recently\u00a0filed a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0against the FDA over triclosan and triclocarbon.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re going to buy anti-bacterial products, make sure they are free of triclosan \u2013 and while you\u2019re reading labels, feel free to kick out toxic fragrances, alcohol, and parabens as well.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Read full article here:\u00a0WHAT\u2019S THE DEAL WITH ANTI-BACTERIAL SOAP?<\/a>\u00a0on Ecosalon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read full article here:\u00a0WHAT\u2019S THE DEAL WITH ANTI-BACTERIAL SOAP?\u00a0on Ecosalon … America has declared war, and it\u2019s not against high-waisted jeans. (Though on that subject, consider me General Patton.) Germs are the new enemy and we\u2019re engaged in hand-to-hand combat with them. Recall\u00a0the sight of Britney Spears\u00a0traipsing across gas station bathrooms barefoot, which horrified people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[178,1,382],"tags":[423,438,433,435,437,436,434,432,431,430,429],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1332,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions\/1332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifeofbrian.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}