Antibacterial Hand Products. Potentially Dangerous, Decidedly Useless.

As the son of a bonafide germaphobe, I have become quite well acquainted with many of the different hand sanitizers currently out on the market. While I have certainly come to appreciate the smell of cucumber melon and isopropanol that follows my mother everywhere she goes, I certainly had to endure nearly the entire bouquet of scents that the different foam, gel, and liquid replacements to hand washing come in. One common factor present among all of these different products has really come to concern me, however, especially as I’ve learned more about evolution this semester.  The worrisome component of these solutions of course, is the proudly advertised “antibacterial power” that my mother particularly seems to love. As we’ve learned in this and perhaps other courses, the elimination of sensitive bacteria by the careless use of antibiotics opens up a competition-free space for resistant bacteria to reproduce more successfully, evolve, and propagate their drug resistance. This of course can have tremendously negative public health outcomes if these bacteria end up being pathogenic for humans. Alarmed, I began to ask myself, can antibacterial gels and hand soaps lead to the spread of drug resistant bacteria in the same way that antibiotics do? Epidemiologists warn, they can.

Interestingly enough, epidemiologists also note that there have been no reliable studies that have demonstrated any such events affecting the health of humans. With all of the complicating variables that exist in a real-world setting, conclusively uncovering a relationship between antibacterial hand products and drug resistant infections would be quite difficult. What has been scientifically proven, by at least 27 studies in fact, is that consumer soaps containing the antibacterial triclosan (the most common consumer antibacterial agent) are no more effective than hand washing at reducing the number of bacteria present on one’s skin, nor do they more effectively stop the spread of illness such as the common cold or flu. Furthermore, while it hasn’t been shown that drug resistant pathogens have negatively affected humans as of yet, we can be certain that consumer antibacterial products have needlessly increased the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the community, raising the risk of harmful, drug-resistant bacteria appearing in the future.

So please, for my health and yours, do your best to wash your hands with soap and water instead of with antibacterial soaps or hand sanitizers. Even non-antibacterial hand sanitizers will get the job done just as effectively. The alcohol present in nearly all hand sanitizers help dissolve bacteria membranes and are highly effective at killing them. And while soap and water alone might not always be fatal for bacteria, the vigorous scrubbing motion will certainly free your hands of those nasty germs. The best news of all of course is that you, and my mother, can responsibly continue smelling like delicious cucumber melon. 

Caleb

Farino, Lisa. "Are Anti-Bacterial Soaps Worth It?" MSN Health. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://health.msn.com/health-topics/infectious-diseases/are-anti-bacterial-soaps-worth-it>.

Markel, Howard. "Germ Warfare." The New York Times. 06 Sept. 2003. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/06/opinion/06MARK.html>.