Anti-anti-bacterial ⇒

Was listening to my weekly Quirks & Quarks podcast today and I heard a very interesting story about anti-baterial soaps and cleaners. The first interesting thing was a study done by the FDA that showed that there was no actual benefit to washing with anti-bacterial soap. You might as well just use normal soap instead of paying extra for the anti-bacterial one.

Secondly, it turns out that the chemical compounds in the anti-bacterial soap don't break down and make it all the way out into the environment again. This means that we may get them back as part our our food!! It hasn't been determined yet whether these compounds are harmful to use or to the food chain in general, but hey, why take the chance.

Lastly, there is the suspicion that the chemical compound are helping create anti-biotic resistant viruses. And we all know that ain't good!

So, the moral is, just use soap and water and we will be better off. Better yet, why not try an organic soap?