Stuff You Should Know - How Antibacterial Soap Works

Episode Date: May 28, 2008

Could the routine use of antibacterial soap increase the presence of drug-resistant bacteria in your home? Learn more about the disadvantages of anti-bacterial soap in this HowStuffWorks podcast. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call,

like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hi, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. I'm a staff writer here at HowStuffWorks.com. With me as always is my very attractive and trusty editor, Chris Palette. Chris, how's your goatee? Oh, it's great. Thanks for asking. Let's talk about antibacterial soap. You want to?

Sure, why not? Chris, should we or should we not outlaw antibacterial soap? I don't know that we need to outlaw antibacterial soap, but you know, we need to take a second look at whether or not we should be using it in all of our daily applications. Why? Well, simply put, it's not that much more effective than regular soap, and it can breathe stronger bacteria. Yeah, basically, from what I gather, from the research I did writing the article, it basically provides this environment for bacteria, where the bacteria that happens to survive goes on to evolve to be resistant to the antibacterial agents, right? Right. Okay, so we've got this, this basically,

we're providing a staging ground for rapid evolution, and we're making our own worst enemy. That's true. That's true, because, you know, some of the, some of the drug-resistant strains can actually, you know, be very, very harmful and can be fatal in some cases. You know, one that comes to mind is MRSA, the MRSA virus, which is a type of staff, and as Rosie O'Donnell knows, staff is no laugh. Basically, MRSA is like a super staff. It's, it's extremely resistant to any kind of drugs, and a lot of people think that MRSA has been allowed to develop because of antibacterial drugs. I'm sorry, well, yeah, antibacterial drugs, antibacterial cleaning products, which altogether make up a term that I coined in the article, the antibacterial lifestyle.

What do you know about that? Well, you know, there are a lot of people as a, as a parent of a young child. You know, I've seen a lot of other parents who are trying to keep their kids away from germs, which is, you know, a reasonable concern. So they, they buy a lot of antibacterial soaps, they buy antibacterial cleaning products. They, they go to the store and pick up an antibacterial basket to put their stuff in or put their kids in the antibacterial cart. Yeah, because everywhere, sponges, all kinds of products. They figured out a way to put it into plastics and blankets and all sorts of things. Countertops? I think there's a problem with that, and that is that if you, if you raise your child in a completely sanitized environment, they're never going to be exposed

to any allergens. You can't go out and sanitize the entire world. So when your kid finally goes out to play, they're going to end up as like a bubble boy or something because they haven't been exposed to any, any allergens and haven't been able to form antibodies. I think there's a, there's a certain level of dirt you need to have in your house to maintain health. Wouldn't you agree? Well, that's true. I mean, if the, if the germs are getting stronger by being exposed to the antimicrobial antibacterial agents, you know, people are not getting stronger by allowing themselves to get over being exposed to these germs. So one side is getting stronger while the other is staying in place, if you will. Essentially, we're shooting ourselves in our own feet. And there are other

ways to, to deal with the problem too. I mean, there are other products that are not necessarily anti antibacterial. We were talking about bleach as one. Now, it's, you know, not something you want laying around on your countertops. It can leave a residue in a lot of cases. But bleach can, well, okay, maybe not all cases, but bleach can kill microbes just by licing them, by breaching their cell walls. And they really have no defense against that. Yeah. And that's, this is where the term for the brand name cleaner Lysol comes from to lice is to basically completely obliterate a cell. So Lysol's name means obliterate cells, which I just think is super cool. Yeah. And the reason that I brought up countertops too is I read about this

countertop material that they have in development where it's not antibacterial because it's got a chemical in it. It's antibacterial because it has thousands and thousands of tiny little, you know, points on the surface of it that when bacteria hit it, they rupture. And so it kills bacteria not through the use of some chemical, but because the surface has lots of little points that are, that pierce the bacteria, but are harmless to your hand because you can't even feel them, which is a, you know, scientific way around the problem. That's excellent. So you get the best of both worlds. Well, I'll tell you what, after researching this article, I've completely given up using antibacterial soap, although I suspect that the soap they use in the dispensers in the

bathroom may be. So I'll be lodging a formal complaint. Well, that's it for us. Be sure to read should antibacterial soap be outlawed on howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid for it.

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