Hand Sanitizers are not all created equal: Why Triclosan products are lacking (pt. 3 of 3)
Personal protection should be on everyone's mind. All you need to do is observe how many people leave without washing their hands the next time you're in a busy public restroom.
I was in the airport recently and it's scary. All those people, with all those filthy unwashed hands, spreading all those germs in multiple airplanes that fly all over the world. And with the financial pressures of major airlines they don't have time to adequately clean planes before their next connection. Your lucky if they take the old newspapers off your seat.
Just think about that nasty newpaper, magazine or information card in the seat back pocket. How many people touched that?
Quick recap. Alcohol based products don't last. BAC is not particularly effective against some of the most important organisms: E. Coli, Salmonella and H1N1.
What's left? Triclosan.
Triclosan is the active ingredient in most of those gold and orange colored liquid soaps and waterless sanitizers on the market. Triclosan has been linked to allergies, asthma and eczema. It is a volatile chemical that can react with the chloride common in regular tap water producing toxic gas.
Exposure to Triclosan can have bad effects on hormones causing a condition known as endocrine disruption.
Triclosan accumulates and contaminates rivers, streams and lakes for very long periods of time.
Based on these concerns, a 2005 advisory panel to the FDA concluded that triclosan posed "unacceptable health and environmental risks".
What has the FDA done with this information? Absolutely nothing.
No surprise there.
I was in the airport recently and it's scary. All those people, with all those filthy unwashed hands, spreading all those germs in multiple airplanes that fly all over the world. And with the financial pressures of major airlines they don't have time to adequately clean planes before their next connection. Your lucky if they take the old newspapers off your seat.
Just think about that nasty newpaper, magazine or information card in the seat back pocket. How many people touched that?
Quick recap. Alcohol based products don't last. BAC is not particularly effective against some of the most important organisms: E. Coli, Salmonella and H1N1.
What's left? Triclosan.
Triclosan is the active ingredient in most of those gold and orange colored liquid soaps and waterless sanitizers on the market. Triclosan has been linked to allergies, asthma and eczema. It is a volatile chemical that can react with the chloride common in regular tap water producing toxic gas.
Exposure to Triclosan can have bad effects on hormones causing a condition known as endocrine disruption.
Triclosan accumulates and contaminates rivers, streams and lakes for very long periods of time.
Based on these concerns, a 2005 advisory panel to the FDA concluded that triclosan posed "unacceptable health and environmental risks".
What has the FDA done with this information? Absolutely nothing.
No surprise there.
So...what's your conclusion?! I'm thinking that it's "Continually re-apply Purell," as the others are too caustic to deal with. I recently read something very science-y saying that children who were exposed to more germs grew up to have stronger immune systems. Did people drop like flies before Purell was invented? Also...why should I worry about germs on my own phone, iPod or computer keyboard, since the only hands and breath on them come from me?
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