Are Antimicrobial Soaps Breeding Tougher Bugs?

I'm always puzzled about why we have to get so martial about everything, we must KILL all microbes, wage have a WAR on cancer, drugs, etc.

About maknig the world 100% sanitary (i.e., dead), so far doesn't seem too effective, probably only adds more carcinogenic chemicals to your load. Again, I repeat, we are made of microbes. If you read my Natural Health article, you'll see that adding a few nice bacteria via kimchi, etc., helps a lot more than trying to (to paraphrase Alice's Restaurant) Kill! KILL!!! KILLL!

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Some Experts Say Risks Outweigh Benefits

By Ranit Mishori
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, November 13, 2007; Page HE01

If cleanliness is next to godliness, modern America is the land of the faithful -- fighting the good fight against today's so-called superbugs with sparkling countertops and well-washed hands.

Our culture's cleanliness obsession has been fed by a booming business in household products that promise the virtue of sterility. According to estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency, our antimicrobial crusade has us spending almost $1 billion annually on soaps and detergents, toys and cutting boards, bedsheets and toothbrushes, all of them treated with chemical compounds designed to kill the germs that cling to them. At the forefront of this product niche is the antimicrobial hand wash, commonly fortified with the bug-battling chemical triclosan.


It may be a dangerous, germ-filled world out there, but with your little bottle of -- choose one: Dial, Safeguard, Palmolive -- you can stroll worry-free through it.

Or so you may think.

The problem about our obsession with killing germs, some scientists and public health advocates warn, is that it may ultimately do us more harm than good.

read more here.