Q:
I’ve just had a baby and want to make sure she has the healthiest
possible start in life. With all the viruses and bacteria around us,
I am trying to keep our home as clean as possible. But during a
recent visit, my mother-in-law said I shouldn’t be using
antibacterial soap. I figure that using it is one of the no-brainer
things we can do. So who is right?
A:
There is a great deal of evidence that the use of antibacterial soap
in the normal household is unnecessary and causes far more harm than
good, both to human health and the environment.
Since 2000, the
American Medical Association (AMA) has been advising the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) to closely monitor and possibly
regulate the home use of antimicrobials. At the AMA annual meeting
in 2000, Myron Genel, chair of the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs
and a Yale University pediatrician, said, “There’s no evidence that
they do any good and there’s reason to suspect that they could
contribute to a problem” by ...
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