Antibacterial Soap Causes Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

The next time you are in your kitchen, look at the area where you prepare food. Do you wonder how many disease-causing bacteria could be living there? There most certainly are some. But don't let that image drive you to throw down this magazine and run for the antibacterial cleanser under the sink. Right now it is pretty tough for those bacteria to make it into your body and begin wreaking havoc, because there just aren't enough of them right there in your kitchen. But TV commercials for antibacterial cleansers would have you believe otherwise. Those cheery soccer moms want you to be so afraid of the bacteria living in your kitchen that you make sure to buy their product-the one that "kills 99.9% of bacteria." Now, it's true that bacteria can cause illness, and as humans we are often at odds with bacteria, but we just can't kill them all. If we try, we could see our plans backfire and send ourselves into a new and precarious future of disease. To understand how, we simply need to take a look at how bacteria have become rapidly resistant to antibiotics, and we see a story unfolding that begins with penicillin as an attack on disease and now has become a Frankenstein's monster of sorts.

Since the 1950s, antibiotics have been widely available and frequently prescribed, and consequently our overuse of and dependence on antibiotics has left us powerless against new, stronger bacterial species capable of causing life-threatening illnesses, such as tuberculosis. In their valiant effort to create safe, disease free environments, hospitals have unwittingly contributed to the proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Although these "superbacteria" are now found mainly in hospitals, a new wave of household pr...

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...w think of your own kitchen. You have the power to keep it as close to the memory of your childhood as you wish. By restricting our use of antibacterial products, we can keep our houses-and our children's houses-safe. But by attempting to wipe out all bacteria and live germfree, we will catapult ourselves into a dark and uncertain future, where our best cure has become our worst poison.

Notes

1. "News Release Archive for 1999," the Soap and Detergent Association web site, 22 May 2014

<http://www.sdahq.org/about/archive99.html#triclosan>.

2. Joseph B. Verrengia, "Some Soaps May Aid Drug Resistance," AP Online. 6 August 2014, 16 June 2014 <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/ >; see also Barbara Ingham, "September 2014 Newsletter," Food Facts for You! 20 June 2014

www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/specialists/ingham/sep2014.html

3. Verrengia.