According to the Mayo Clinic and the FDA, antibacterial soaps do offer greater protection than regular soaps, but only in one particular instance.
That is: if you have an open cut or sore that could become infected.
Therefore, antibacterial soaps are useful in hospital and school environments — largely for that reason. However, antibacterial soaps may do more harm than good when used in normal, healthy households.
In reality, regular soap does the job just fine, because it is the combination of scrubbing your hands with any kind of soap (antibacterial or regular) and rinsing them with water that actually loosens and removes the bacteria — more than the type of soap you use.
The truth is, people who are buying up all the antibacterial products are doing so because they think they’re being extra cautious and protecting themselves from disease or infection.
But what they don’t realize is that most of the infections people get are of the cold, flu and diarrhea variety — and those are caused by viruses NOT bacteria!
And on a related note:
Antibacterial products work differently than most soaps. Regular soaps separate the bacteria from the hand. Those bacteria are then washed down the drain or become attached to the towels when the person dries their hands. But in antibacterials, they don’t clean that way. And just rubbing them on doesn’t always work. You have to incur a lot of friction, that’s the design, in order to alleviate soap’s bacteria and dirt from the skin. And most people, unfortunately, don’t do that. So taking these antibacterial soaps institutes a false sense of security. Source
More About Antibacterial Soaps
- Study: Anti-Bacterial Soaps Don’t Cut Cold Risk
- Antibacterial Soaps Cause Concern
- Antibacterial Soaps Popularity May be Spreading Resistant Bacteria
- More About Triclosan & Antibacterial Products
- Anti-bacterial Soaps Contribute To The Rise Of Germs
UPDATE:
According to Dr. Stuart Levy, the antibacterial agent found in these soaps is triclosan (also known as an antibiotic), and it can pose an unexpected hazard — especially with children.
Unfortunately, the antibiotic residue in these antibacterial soaps remains on household surfaces and exterminates the majority of harmless germs that normally reside all around us. It’s a fact that young children need to interact with such germs in order to train their immune systems to ward off such germs as adults.
So, that’s yet another big strike against using antibacterial soaps regularly at home!
