If you think you're doing yourself a favor by using antibacterial soaps to wash your dirty hands, then you will be disappointed by this new research.
According to a new study conducted by a Korean team, in the real world setting, antibacterial soaps don't provide significant benefit when it comes to killing off pathogens that may make a person sick.
To be clear, bacteria may be wiped out with prolonged exposure to an active ingredient called triclosan. However, based on the experiment, it would take at least 9 hours for something significant to happen. Most users wash their hands for less than a minute. In the meantime, users can continue to enjoy the benefit of washing their hands with regular soap and water.
The study was divided into two phases. In the first phase, the team worked with 20 bacterial strains each placed in preheated test tubes. They were then exposed to either plain soap or soap with at 0.3% triclosan, the maximum triclosan allowed by law. Exposure to 0.3% triclosan within 10 to 30 seconds didn't have any different benefit than the regular hand soap.
To further confirm these results, they performed a follow-up test, this time among 16 adults of healthy condition. The participants were exposed to bacteria and then instructed to wash their hands with either antibacterial or ordinary soap in warm-temperature water, making sure their lower forearms were also included. Although both worked against bacteria, the difference wasn't substantial.
Nevertheless, the researchers stress the results do not provide an ultimate conclusion to the effectiveness of anti-bacterial soaps.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration mentions inconclusive results on the triclosan's effectiveness. For example, based on a toothpaste test in 1997, the ingredient can help prevent gingivitis. However, there's not much solid evidence when it's used in other products. The FDA also mentions that triclosan is not known to be harmful to humans, although some researches in animal studies point to hormone alteration.
The results of the study are now available in Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
