FDA To Decide Fate of Triclosan, Commonly Used In Antibacterial Soaps

kkleiner writes "The FDA is finalizing its review of the antibacterial agent triclosan common to many soaps and other health/household products after four decades of use. Recent studies suggest the chemical may be harmful to animals and could interfere with the human immune system along with increasing the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The agency has been slow to cast a verdict, to much criticism considering its widespread use."

Comments

I sense a great disturbance in the web...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

As if millions of hypochondriacs cried out in terror and suddenly went to check WebMD.

Re:I sense a great disturbance in the web...

[noh8rz10]

there is no purpose for antibacterial soap. it is just a gimmick and fud that has bad implications because bacteria build up resistance over time. regular soap kills bacteria just fine. you know how a drop of soap will break up grease? the outside of a bacteria cell is just lipids, so the regular soap has the same effect on them. Good for FDA for limiting the explosion of antibacterial products. next step, eliminate antibiotics in farm food.

Re:I sense a great disturbance in the web...

[Bob the Super Hamste]

For beef last year I split 1/4 of a cow with my father and it came out to just over $4 a pound with processing and the farmer is one of my dad's long time friends. For pork my neighbor's brother raises hogs so I will split a quarter of a hog with him and that comes out to just under $3.50 a pound. Strangely the two farmers live about a mile apart and know each other. In both cases I end up paying the farmers directly and the processor for the bulk processing. Chickens I have to butcher and pluck them myself but they are small enough that it isn't a long job and I can pick one up on the way home from work for $5 as it is only about a mile out of my way. I get my deer processed at the same place as the hogs and cattle as they do a really good job and have won tons of state, regional, and national quality and cleanliness awards. They charge by finished weight $1/lb for steaks, chops, and roasts, and $0.25/lb to grind the trimmings into burger with sausages carrying extra fees depending on what you want done to cover the additional costs. Unlike some places the critter you bring in is the one you get back which seems to happen a lot with places that process venison. The other nice thing is since I know the farmers I have seen what the critters are fed, how the live, and how they are treated and know if they have been given hormones or antibiotics. It seems that there is a much stronger flavor from these critters when compared to the store bought ones probably because they aren't so over processed (treated with ammonia and packed in CO2) and fed a diet of something other than empty calories and hormones.

Re:the scare the women marketing strategy

[Maximum Prophet]

You're tough, you didn't die, you've lived to post about it.

Every kid that was killed by weird diseases caused by picking things up, isn't posting.

Re:the scare the women marketing strategy

[dkleinsc]

Sadly, this is a common marketing strategy, for several reasons:
- Women are a lot more likely to be homemakers than men, so they're easier to bombard with advertising.
- Women are slightly more likely than men to make decisions using emotion rather than logic (everyone uses both ways of deciding, but where they conflict men are about 60-40 in favor of logic while women are about 60-40 in favor of emotion).
- Women do most of the shopping in most households.
- Women are significantly more socialized than men to give presents to each other to cement social bonds.

All this adds up to advertisers targeting women for common household products, particularly women who grew up before the rise of Second-wave Feminism. And although this is changing a bit, most ads for cleaning supplies, food, diapers, paper towels, etc feature those products being used by women rather than men.