"Hello, I must be going. I came to say I cannot stay, I must be going. I'm glad I came, but all the same, I must be going." -- Groucho Marx as Captain Spaulding, Animal Crackers.
Germs aren't funny like Groucho Marx, but when you use soap, they have to leave, too. I didn’t know all this until I started investigating soap. And it could make a difference to you and your family. If you're avoiding bar soap based on what appears to be a false assumption regarding soap and bacteria (the idea that bacteria is easily transferred via bar soap from one user to the next), then you may be unnecessarily subjecting your skin to harsher chemicals. This might give you some new information.
What makes soap work are the two ends of the soap molecule - one hydrophilic (water loving) and one hydrophobic (water hating). But we don’t care about that —we care that it works, and it carries dirt and oil away from our skin. Nothing else works the way soap works — the same way it adheres to / carries dirt and oil away, it carries bacteria away.
We wash with soap to remove the bacteria on our hands; shouldn't that very same washing do just as well with any bacteria that might be on the soap? There are scientific studies that suggest that it does. For example, this 1998 study published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection and conducted by Dial (a purveyor of both bar and liquid soap) concluded that "little hazard exists in routine handwashing with previously used soap bars." In this study 16 subjects washed their hands with bars of soap that had been laced with bacteria. After washing, the investigators were unable to find detectable levels of bacteria on the subjects' skin. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-chameides/chemical-marketplace-bar_b_2104678.html
We each have about 22 square feet of skin that absorbs what it’s in contact with — you’d like what you put on your skin to be good for you (or at least not bad for you).
One of the main ways your body acquires nutrients, other than eating, is transdermally— through the skin. Your skin is your largest organ—22 square feet on average—and 60 percent of the substances you put on it are eventually absorbed into the bloodstream. This semipermeable membrane allows us to absorb vitamins and minerals, but, unfortunately, it absorbs harmful chemicals we put on it, too.
Chemicals in common soaps are no joke. They can disrupt our hormones, promote allergies, lead to reproductive issues and increase risk of some cancers. With serious side effects like these, we need to be particular about what we put on our skin. http://www.healthywomen.org/content/blog-entry/whats-hiding-your-soap-four-toxic-ingredients-avoid
Avoid questionable chemicals. By selecting a natural bar soap, you avoid potentially hazardous chemicals like triclosan, an antimicrobial agent commonly found in commercial soaps. Triclosan was under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as of 2011, due to concerns that the chemical alters human hormone production (see References 2). Triclosan is also toxic to multiple forms of aquatic life. That raises concern that the chemical, which accumulates in fat cells, is spreading through food webs and posing an environmental threat, according to M .A. Coogan, lead researcher for a 2007 study done at the University of North Texas Institute of Applied Sciences (see Reference 3). On the public health front, the American Medical Association suggests you avoid antimicrobial products such as triclosan due to concern that frequent use of such chemicals helps dangerous bacteria develop antimicrobial resistance more quickly (see Reference 4). http://homeguides.sfgate.com/green-bar-soap-instead-body-washes-78279.html
A lot of people use liquid soap to avoid soap goo. And a lot of others use liquid soap worrying about bacteria transferring from one bar using to the next. It turns out there’s not much science behind that concern… there is bacteria on the bar, just like there is on our skin (and on the pump and nozzle of the liquid soap dispenser), but the water-loving end of the soap molecule takes the bacteria away - washed away with the water.
“Washing with contaminated bar soap is unlikely to transfer bacteria.”, Heinze JE1, Yackovich F.: Recent reports of the isolation of microorganisms from used soap bars have raised the concern that bacteria may be transferred from contaminated soap bars during handwashing. Since only one study addressing this question has been published, we developed an additional procedure to test this concern. In our new method prewashed and softened commercial deodorant soap bars (0.8% triclocarban) not active against Gram-negative bacteria were inoculated with Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to give mean total survival levels of 4.4 X 10(5) c.f.u. per bar which was 70-fold higher than those reported on used soap bars. Sixteen panelists were instructed to wash with the inoculated bars using their normal handwashing procedure. After washing, none of the 16 panelists had detectable levels of either test bacterium on their hands. Thus, the results obtained using our new method were in complete agreement with those obtained with the previously published method even though the two methods differ in a number of procedural aspects. These findings, along with other published reports, show that little hazard exists in routine handwashing with previously used soap bars and support the frequent use of soap and water for handwashing to prevent the spread of disease. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3402545
Just thought you'd want to know.
