The Effects of Antibacterial Soap

A while ago, I was in a store looking for dish soap without the antibacterial chemicals, and had trouble finding some.

The reason I was looking for dish soap without the antibacterial chemicals is that it's good for washing cars at home on the lawn.

However, I was concerned that the antibacterial chemicals in the soap that I was seeing would kill the useful micro-organisms in the lawn, thus damaging the overall health of the lawn.

I  found some eventually, but I had to go to several stores before I did. While I was doing this searching, I wondered what kind if damage we are doing by using antibacterial soaps.

Apparently I'm not the first person to ask this question.

When I started searching for information on it, the first thing that caught my attention was an article on the CBS News website titled Antibacterial Soaps Cause Concern.  

I'm going to suggest that antibacterial soaps have little functional use outside of medical facilities, and food service operations.

Antibacterial soaps don't appear to provide any additional protection from illness over regular soap, and can be harmful to the environment. 

If you don't believe me, check out this WebMD article. The article also lists some alternative disinfecting options.

I don't know about everybody else, but I think it's a bad idea to kill all bacteria except the ones that are resistant to our existing antibacterial chemicals.

When there are several kinds of bacteria, they are all competing for resources. This includes the both the bacteria that our anti-bacterial soaps can and can't kill.

When you kill the bacteria that can be killed by antibacterial soap,  you leave the bacteria that is tolerant to these chemicals with plenty of space and resources to multiply.

I also thought about the impact that this stuff might have on our waste systems.  I found an article at ScienceDaily.com that talks about this, that's titled Sludge Recycling Sends Antiseptic Soap Ingredient To Agriculture.

Sounds tasty doesn't it?

...."I'd like that sandwich on whole wheat bread grown in antibacterial Dial."  Most people don't know this, but it's the kind that makes you fart bubbles.

I can't say for sure what the long term effects of overusing antibacterial soaps will be, but I'm sure they won't be good.

  
I've already started to limit my use of products with antibacterial chemicals, and will continue to do so in the future. 

They don't appear to be especially helpful at preventing illness, and it looks like they will do more harm than good.