Antibacterial Soap Has Poor Killing Powder
by James Urquhart and ChemistryWorld Sept. 24, 2015
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Source: Scientific American
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Summary: According to Korean Researchers, antibacterial soap contains a microbe-killing ingredient called tricsolan. In the 1970s, triclosan was first introduced in scrub soap in hospitals. Triclosan is known for it's antimicrobial properties and the maximum that is used in hand soap is 0.3% in most countries. But studies have shows that having that amount has no effect in killing bacteria on hands than plain soap. In December 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed that manufacturers of antibacterial hand soaps must be safer and more effective than plain soap. Researchers at Korea University, Seoul, have found that soap that contains triclosan is no better than plain soap. They believe that their study is more accurate since they used one variable, which is the presence or absence of 0.3% triclosen in hand soap. They used a group of people that were contaminated with bacteria. Half of them were told to wash their hands with they plain soap and the other half were told to wash their hands with triclosan-containing soap at room temperature. They found that there's no significant difference in bactericidal activity between plain soap and antibacterial soap. After 9 hours, they discovered that the soap containing triclosan was more effective. They believe that it would take people longer to get rid of bacteria on their hands since they wash it for a few seconds. However, Allison Aiello at the University of North Carolina disagrees with the studies. Because they only used one variable in the experiment.
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Reflection- while reading this article I was thinking was triclosan the ingredient that many antibacterial soap really had to kill germs? So, I after reading the article I went to check my antibacterial soap and I found something interesting! In the soap there wasn't triclosan in the ingredient, but it was benzalkonium chloride instead. I was shocked because I thought every antibacterial soap had the same ingredient, but then I found that triclosan is used for personal care products. While benzalkonium is used for home products, because it is safer than triclosan.
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