Are people really this stupid?

Last night while taking a break from the Olympics and watching Will and Grace, I saw two back-to-back commercials that really annoyed me…

The first was for Lysol’s new, *touch free* antibacterial soap dispenser. Apparently every kitchen needs one to prevent the spreading of germs. Ok, stop and think for a second – stopping the spread of germs on a bottle of soap. Besides the fact I cannot stand when people use the word germ (that will be another post), the biggest issue I had with this commercial is that you are about to wash your hands! Who cares if “germs” get on the soap pump – anyone that touches it is going to wash their hands anyways!


The second commercial was for antibacterial Windex. Who the hell needs their windows to be free of bacteria? Am I missing something? Do people lick their windows every so often? Not to mention, what bacteria (that will bother a human) can actually survive and grow on glass? It is not exactly an ideal place to live and find nutrients. I acknowledge that Windex is a multi-surface cleaner, but has anyone taken the time to read the fine print? It claims Windex kills 99.9% of common household germs, but then there is a “‡”. What this double dagger then goes on to tell us (if you go to the website) is that 99.9% means 7 bacterial species. And to kill 3 of those 7, including salmonella and E. coli, you need to spray it on the surface until wet, allow it to sit for 5 minutes and then wipe clean. Who does that? No one!

This is true for almost all of the products that claim they kill 99.9% of common household germs. They only kill a few types of bacteria and most of the time they don’t even do that because people do not use the product correctly. Oh yeah, and don’t forget that most diseases are actually viral and are therefore not even affected by antibacterial products.

UGH! Sorry, that was a little bit of a vent/rant, but this is just a topic that really bothers me. What should you take out of this (besides the obvious – don’t buy those two products)?

You don’t need to use antibacterial soap. Soap is a very simple molecule to understand. To save you boring chemistry, just know that when soap is in water is able to encapsulate dirt, oil and bacteria. It basically forms a little bubble around the particles. Once encapsulated, it can easily be rinsed off and down the drain. Regular old soap, by its very chemical nature, is antibacterial! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that antibacterial soaps are pointless and the best thing a person can do is wash with ordinary soap and warm water. But people are scared of bacteria so companies got smart and started marketing antibacterial soap.

To make something antibacterial manufacturers will add other chemicals, usually triclosan. Triclosan will kill bacteria, but only if left on the surface for around 2 minutes. Who takes that long to wash their hands? Some bacteria have also been reported to have become resistant to triclosan and antibacterial resistance is a HUGE issue. If you have soap that contains triclosan – throw it out! Soaps can also add alcohol or small amounts of phenol to kill bacteria, but these types of soaps really should be reserved for people in medical and bioresearch fields.