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DCL
Nobody like germs-after all, pneumonia, tuberculosis, meningitis, strep throat, and food poisoning are just some of the loathsome maladies we can blame bacteria for. A good scrubbing with soap and hot water isn't enough to get next to godliness now, we're told, as we're presented with an expansive arsenal of antibacterial products that includes hand soaps, sponges, household cleaners, crib mattresses, countertops, and makeup brushes. Papermate even has a mechanical pencil infused with "antimicrobial technology."
But a 2005 study published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal reported that antibacterial soaps offered no more protection than good ol' fashioned soap and water. Our casual use of antibacterial products might even be breeding drug-resistant super germs that cannot be squashed by antibiotics. While regular soap helps loosen dirt, oil, and microbes from the skin so they can be rinsed away with water, antibacterial products leave behind a chemical residue that continues to kill bacteria, but not necessarily all of them. (Alcohol-based sanitizers with a minimum of 60 percent ethanol, however, are not believed to promote bacterial resistance, because they don't leave chemical traces that give bacteria the opportunity to evolve a resistant strain.)
The emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, aside, scientists harbor other concerns about antibacterial compounds. Triclosan, one of the most popular bacteria-killing chemicals, was discovered in 55 percent of North American streams, in concentrations that allow it to act as an endocrine disruptor, according to a study published in the December 2006 issue of Aquatic Toxicology. (Learn more about this at TreeHugger.)
Another study, that same year, by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health determined that 75 percent of the antibacterial compound triclocarban, which is closely related to triclosan, gets sloshed down the drain by handwashers only to survive wastewater treatment and accumulate in municipal sludge, which is later used as fertilizer for crops that land up on our dinner plates.
"Following its intended use as a topical antiseptic, we are effectively and inadvertently using it as an agricultural pesticide that is neither regulated nor monitored," says senior author Rolf U. Halden, Ph.D., assistant professor and co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Center for Water and Health in a press release.
We don't know about you, but we're calling antibacterial compounds a wash.
Difficulty level: Easy
