How Antibacterial Soap Works

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.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from how stuff Works dot Com? Hi, welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark. I'm a staff writer here at how
Stuff Works dot Com. With me, as always is my
very attractive and trustee editor Chris Pallette Chrisis, you're gokie.

(00:21):
Oh it's great. Thanks asking. Let's talk about antibacterial soap
if you want to? Sure? Why not? Chris? Should we
or should we not outlaw antibacterial soap? I don't know
that we need outlaw antibacterial soap, but you know we
need to take a second second look at whether or
not we should be using it in all of our
daily applications. Why. Well, simply put, um, it's not that

(00:44):
much more effective than regular soap, and it can breed
stronger bacteria. Yeah. Basically from what I gather, uh, you know,
from the research I did writing the article. Uh, it
basically provides this uh, this environment or bacteria where the
bacteria that happens to survive uh goes on to evolved

(01:05):
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, uh, you know, some of
the some of the drug resistant strains um can actually

(01:27):
you know, be very very harmful and can be fatal
in some cases. You know, one that comes to mind
is Mercia, the Mercy virus, which is a type of
staff and as Rosie O'Donnell, no staff is no laugh, um.
And basically Mercia is like a superstaff. It's it's extremely
resistant to any kind of drugs. And a lot of

(01:47):
people think that that Mercy has been allowed to develop
because of antibacterial drugs anti I'm sorry, Well yeah, antibacterial drugs,
antibacterial cleaning products, which all together make up a term
that I coined in the article, the antibacterial lifestyle. What
do you know about that? Well, um, you know, there

(02:08):
are a lot of people, as as a parent of
a young child, um, 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 go to the store and
pick up an antibacterial basket to put their stuff in,

(02:30):
or put their kids in the antibacterial card because everywhere
sponges kinds of and they've figured out a way to
put it into plastics and blankets and 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 then in in completely sanitized environment, then if you're
gonna be exposed to any allergens, you can't go out

(02:53):
and sanitize the entire world. So when your kid finally
goes out to play, they're gonna end up as like
a bubble boy or something because they haven't been supposed
to any any allergies 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

(03:15):
the animal microbial antibacterial agents, um, 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, you know.
And there are other ways to to deal with the
problem too. I mean, there are other products that are

(03:36):
not necessarily anti uh 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 in a lot of cases, but bleach can um
well okay, maybe not all cases, but um, bleach can
kill microbes just by uh licening them, by breaching their

(03:59):
cell walls, and they really have no defense against that. Yeah,
And that's this is where the term for the brand
name cleaner Lisol comes from. To lice is to basically
completely obliterate a cell. So Lifsol's name means obliterate cells,
which I just think is super cool. Yeah. And the
reason that that I brought up countertops two is I
read about this countertop material that they have in development

(04:22):
where um, it's not anim bacterial because it's got a
chemical in it, it's antibacterial because it has thousands and
thousands of tiny little uh, 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 this the surface has lots of

(04:43):
little points that are that are that pierced the bacteria,
but are harmless to your hand because you can't even
feel them, which is a you know, scientific way around
the around the problem. It's excellent, so you get the
best of both worlds. And well, I'll tell you what,
after researching this article, I've completely given up using antibacterial soap.
All oh. I suspect that the soap they used in
the dispensers in the bathroom maybe so, so I'll be

(05:04):
lodging a formal complaint. Let's it for us. Be sure
to read should antibacterial soap be Outlawed? On how stuff
works dot com for more on this and thousands of
other topics. Because at how stuff works dot com, let
us know what you think. Send an email to podcast
at how stuff works dot com. M brought to you

(05:27):
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