Chemical in many antibacterial soaps linked with impaired muscle function

Introduced in the 1970s, the compound triclosan has become an increasingly popular ingredient in many antibacterial soaps and other personal-care items, such as deodorants and mouthwashes. However, as the chemical’s popularity continues to grow, a recent report has raised concerns about some frightening risks that triclosan could pose to public health.

A new study published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" has revealed that exposure to triclosan is linked with muscle function impairments in humans and mice, as well as slowing the swimming of fish. By reducing contractions in both cardiac and skeletal muscles, the chemical has the potential to contribute to heart disease and heart failure.

The researchers from the University of California, Davis, and the University of Colorado decided to examine the possible effects of triclosan due to recent literature raising health concerns about the chemical, as well as substantial increases in its production.

I think there is more to this than meets the eye. Some years ago, it was noted that many bacteria were becoming resistant to Triclosan, and it was strongly recommended that manufacturers develop other antibacterial agents to replace it.

“Triclosan and antimicrobial resistance in bacteria: an overview.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16922622

However, few manufacturers did, because Triclosan is inexpensive and certified as “safe and antibacterial”. For them to develop others is prohibitively expensive.

Importantly, for most people, the primary use of Triclosan is in hand soap. For this reason, someone developed some simple principles of contamination and a scale of contamination and how best to clean one’s hands.

1) Most foreign contamination on the body is on the hands. So the emphasis for decontamination should be on them.

2) Most pathogenic microorganisms are found in physical contamination, like dirt and oil on the skin, as well as natural skin oils. So if you wash this off, you get rid of the majority of pathogens.

3) If you see such contamination on your hands, you need to wash your hands with ordinary soap and water. Water alone will clean perhaps 40% of the way, with ordinary soap, at least 80%. Antibacterial soap will do maybe 10% better than ordinary soap, but not 100%, mostly because there are lots of nooks and crannies for bacterial to hide in, like under the nails, and lots of skin oil doesn’t easily wash off.

4) There are some other cleaners that will disinfect up to 98%, like citrus based cleaners, but they strip all the skin oil off your hands and leave the skin uncomfortably dry.

5) If there is no visible contamination, hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol works great. Statistically it has been proven that if you are out in public during cold and flu season, and you use hand sanitizer six times a day, you will reduce your chance of colds and flu by about 60%.

(Colds and flu transmit optimally by coughing and sneezing at 40F and low humidity. Higher temperature and humidity make it much more reliant on hand contamination to spread.)

6) On the skin from about knees to navel is called the “coliform zone”, where the density of ‘bad’ bacteria is much higher. This is the reason you are supposed to wash your hands after going to the bathroom.

So the bottom line is simple. When your hands are visibly dirty, or after you have gone to the bathroom, wash them with ordinary soap and water. When you are around people with colds and flu, use hand sanitizer to keep from getting sick.

No reason to fuss with antibacterial soap at all. Bye-bye Triclosan.

As a historical note, a very popular hand sanitizer of the past was called “pHisoHex”, and was widely used in hospitals. Its active ingredient was hexachlorophene(*).

In 1969, hexachlorophene became suspected of causing cancer, and studies determined that oral ingestion of hexachlorophene led to weakness and paralysis in laboratory rats. In 1972 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlawed its use in non-medicinal products like Dial soap.

A 1978 study undertaken by the U.S. National Institutes of Health indicated that hexachlorophene does not cause cancer.

Several substitute products (including Triclosan) were developed, but none had the germ-killing capability of hexachlorophene.

(*) Alternative names for hexachlorophene include: Acigena, Almederm, AT7, AT17, Bilevon, Exofene, Fostril, Gamophen, G-11, Germa-Medica, Hexosan, Septisol, Surofene.

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