Going to the supermarket and purchasing a commercial anti-bacterial soap over a regular soap may not make too much of a difference when it comes to cleaning, a new study finds. Getting bacteria out through washing with regular hand soap and water will do just fine.
There has been a study conducted before to test out whether a regular soap and an anti-bacterial soap would have any difference. The latest study, however, was conducted by testing out both soaps against 20 strains of bacteria in a lab. The soaps on dirty hands of people were tested out as well.
According to both lab and real-life tests and as presented in a recent report, regular soap can perform just as much as those anti-bacterial soaps would. However, the latter is found out to contain a controversial chemical known as triclosan, according to a study from researchers in South Korea.
"This study shows that presence of antiseptic ingredients (in this case, triclosan) in soap does not always guarantee higher anti-microbial efficacy during hand washing," said the study's senior author, Min-Suk Rhee in an email to popular science news website LiveScience.
The soaps that are used in the research were the same, save for the triclosan. Triclosan's history can be traced back to the early 1960's and it is commonly used as an antiseptic ingredient in soap, the researchers explained. Triclosan is still being added by manufacturers into basic hygiene products such as toothpaste and shampoo, clothing, kitchenware and toys in order to prevent or reduce bacterial contamination and growth.
However, there have been several negative health effects caused by triclosan. Recent researches also concluded that it has caused antibiotic resistance among germs, along with allergies and hormone disruption in humans. Also, another study discovered that longer exposure to triclosan might cause cancer as tried in mice.
