Antibacterial Products: Overused or Beneficial?

We all want to be clean and safe, and we all want our children to stay healthy, so when all the myriad antibacterial products started showing up on the grocery store shelves, most people were ecstatic. After all, bacteria and viruses are everywhere. I think most people are aware of how filthy shopping cart handles are and how disgusting public restrooms can be. In fact, almost any surface can harbor bacteria, which makes the antibacterial soaps, detergents and sanitizers all the more appealing. However, there is a down side to all of this cleanliness.

Hand sanitizers and antibacterial soaps have been out for quite a few years now, which has given some bacteria time to adapt and become resistant. This, of course, is not a good thing. Well, for the bacteria it is, but not for us. When we continuously and routinely spray antibacterial solutions around our homes and businesses, the bacteria that are present can get so used to the solutions that they mutate slightly so that the chemicals no longer kill them. This sort of thing happens a lot now with antibiotic medicine as well. Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with rubbing shopping carts with cleaner or cleaning your kitchen, but care should be taken that it's not overdone.

Recent studies have shown that all of the bacteria killing solutions and soaps used are getting flushed down the drain, which leads to the sanitary sewer system. The wastewater treatment plant that handles the sewer water has to clean the influent (the water coming into the plant) enough that it is safe to discharge to lake, bay or other water body. To do this, they use live bacteria in one of their holding tanks. These bugs actually consume the waste, which lessens the amount of sterilization and filtration needed down the line. Unfortunately, the antibacterial products that end up in the influent can also kill off the good bugs that the treatment plant uses. This means that some harmful elements can pass through the tank. If too much harmful product passes from the tank to the next stage in the cleaning process, it can place too much stress on the plant or require an additional stage of treatment, upping the overall cost or reducing the efficiency of the plant. Sometimes, the plant won't detect the pass through and the water will flow back out without being sufficiently cleaned, causing increased levels of pollutants in the discharge or effluent.

In most cases, just using regular soap and water is enough to kill off germs and keep yourself clean. For this reason, the use of antibacterials should be minimized and only used when absolutely necessary.