Dangers of Antibacterial Soaps with Triclosan by Jesus Morales

This article by Saundra Young which was published on CNN is very interesting and it talks about antibacterial soaps and the chemical of triclosan that it is on the soap. Millions of people are using products that contain that chemical, but they do not know that this product can have an effect to your body. Most people are not aware of the fact that they are using a product that is “prevent” illness, but actually it damaging your body.

I think it is crazy that companies are still selling this kind of products and people have no idea of the damage they are casing to their body. According to Sandra Young they have used this product in rats and the results show that they have been affected by the chemical and they are having problems with the thyroid hormones. She also said that it is hard to have the same experiment with humans because it is with a long-term exposure to the product.

The Food and Drug Administration has been working about this issue with the antibacterial soaps, and in 2010 they told the companies that sell this kind of product to prove to them that it is worth it to have it in the market and that it actually works and do not have any side effects. If the cannot prove that the product works, companies have to take the product out of market, which is what the FDA wants because of the data that they have collected. The article mentions that the deadline is in June 2014 to summit the data and the studies of the product.

This is a very important article because most people do not know what they are buying and when it comes to health, they want the best product. But in the case, this product is not as safe or as good of what most people think because they do not know that antibacterial have a side effect to your body. Because of the advertisement that these products are getting, many people use it and there are exposed to it all the time at work, home, school, and any other places. Since these products are around us, the FDA should take the concern of the data and make sure that these antibacterial products do not have any side effects and they are truly better than regular soap.

I have some knowledge of this issue with antibacterial soaps because my A&P professor talked about this during one of his classes and it was very interesting. Before he talked about it, I did not know about it and I was using these soaps and body washes at that time. But after he talked about it, I quit using those products and I started buying regular soap. Also, I talked about this problem with my family and my friends and told them that these products are as good as most people think. So, I told them why they should not use it. They were very impressed because they did not know that instead of doing something good for their health, they were doing the opposite.

In conclusion, this article is very interesting because you can learn about the problematic thinks that can happy to your body if you keep using antibacterial and body washes soaps. It is always good to know what you are actually doing to your body. Also I believe that the FDA should start making advertisements or tell the world to be careful with these products because we do not know yet if it is actually working and it is good for your body. If we tell the world about this problem, people are going to be concern about it and it would be their problem if they keep using these products.

 

References

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/16/health/fda-antibacterial/