I've been covering the issue of triclosan for a good decade or longer by now. Many articles about this toxic and infection promoting chemical can be found here at Natural Health News. Now we see a new article that points to the expansive growth of "wipes" type products to clear away 'germs', and making us all much more at risk in the long run.
In closing the writer points our that hand washing with soap and water can, as I have said so often, do a much better and safer job without the chemicals.
The problem with the chemicals is that is removes the protective bacterial protection on your skin, dries out your skin, and leads to higher risk of infection. And the infection can be pretty serious if you get one.
In all of my articles I promote the use of mild, unfrangranced soap, dying your hands thoroughly, and applying a simple natural lubricant to your skin to help prevent drying (which perpetuates the problem), coconut oil works very well.
You can easily make your own wipes if you think you need these waste producing items using pure essential oils like lemon, sweet orange, or even eucalyptus. The essential oils do a much better job of killing bacteria, and they don't lead to ineffectiveness as the chemical antibacterials do. Even apple cider vinegar is anti infective and it is an odor eliminator as well, plus much less expensive.
More on skin.
In closing the writer points our that hand washing with soap and water can, as I have said so often, do a much better and safer job without the chemicals.
The problem with the chemicals is that is removes the protective bacterial protection on your skin, dries out your skin, and leads to higher risk of infection. And the infection can be pretty serious if you get one.
In all of my articles I promote the use of mild, unfrangranced soap, dying your hands thoroughly, and applying a simple natural lubricant to your skin to help prevent drying (which perpetuates the problem), coconut oil works very well.
You can easily make your own wipes if you think you need these waste producing items using pure essential oils like lemon, sweet orange, or even eucalyptus. The essential oils do a much better job of killing bacteria, and they don't lead to ineffectiveness as the chemical antibacterials do. Even apple cider vinegar is anti infective and it is an odor eliminator as well, plus much less expensive.
More on skin.
The really intriguing news--a kind of breakthrough--is that the main compounds in antibiotic wipes, creams and soaps, triclosan and/or the chemically similar triclocarban, have also been sprinkled around our lives more generally. A recent study notes that triclosan is now used to "impregnate surfaces and has been added to chopping boards, refrigerators, plastic lunchboxes, mattresses as well as being used in industrial settings, such as food processing plants where walls, floors and exposed machinery have all been treated with triclosan in order to reduce microbial load." You can now go home, wipe your world down and live a happier life, surrounded by an antibiotic force field. Be especially sure to wipe your children down. Children are just about the grimiest thing in the world....Selections from Natural Health News (from 30 related posts on this topic)
It turns out that although we know that washing our hands prevents a range of illnesses and are incredibly eager to buy products marketed to kill germs, we don't actually take the simpler measure of washing hands in the first place. A study of nearly eight thousand individuals in five U.S. cities found almost half of the participants failed to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. In this light, no mystery salve is necessary, no miracle cure, special wipe, or magic. We need to wash our hands, because soap does the body good, at least in all the ways studied so far. It is not fancy. It is not expensive or heavily marketed and yet it works, as it long has, even though as of yet, no one can conclusively, unambiguously, tell you why. SOURCE
Natural Health News: FDA Looking into Triclosan?
Aug 29, 2010
In a claim filed Tuesday, the National Resources Defense Council says the FDA didn't regulate the levels of triclosan and triclocarban in the soap, two toxic chemicals that can cause problems with reproductive organs, ...
Natural Health News: Hand Sanitizers: UPDATE
Nov 01, 2009
Many recent studies have raised serious concerns that triclosan may promote the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. So while alcohol based sanitizers may not cause super bacteria. ...
Chloroform Danger With Antimicrobial Soap
Apr 16, 2005
The main reason for my advice has been that these chemicals, such as triclosan, disturb the balance of naturally occuring staph bacteria on the skin's surface (epidermis). Now here is more convincing evidence. ...
Another "Green Living"© writer warns of hand sanitizers
May 26, 2008
But I did already know that certain hand purifying gels contained, among other undesirables, the hormone disrupting antibacterial/antifungal agent triclosan, which can form dioxins when it comes into contact with water and has some ...
