The Overuse of Antibacterials

Danger is lurking in cupboards and cabinets across the world, cloaked in the guise of a health promoting cleaner. Antibacterials are pervasive, over used, and not completely understood by most. Used properly, antibacterials can save us each from medical misery in the form of infection; used improperly, bacteria can become increasingly resistant to poisons and more virulent in the process.

Most often, bacteria are thought to be an invisible menace, waiting for an opportunity to infect someone new and multiply. The media and large detergent and soap manufacturers have made an extensive campaign promoting antibacterial cleaners that reportedly kill 99% of all bacteria. So much has been put into this campaign that a full half of the 1100 cleaning products currently on the market contain antibacterials (Americans Are, 2006). The problem begins with the fact that 99% of all bacteria in existence are beneficial or harmless. A mere one percent of all bacteria have pathogenic (disease causing) properties (Starr and Taggart, 2003). These pathogenic bacteria receive most of the attention, however, due to the direct and often debilitating effect that they can have on humans and animals.

Bacteria can be found everywhere. They are present in the deepest oceans, on glaciers and mountaintops, in thermal vents that reach phenomenal temperatures, in food, and even in human bodies (Bacteria: Life, 2006). Bacteria have also formed a symbiotic relationship with coral reefs. Each individual polyp that makes up a coral formation has bacteria present, forming different colors in the coral. The bacteria are photoautotrophic, meaning that they make food from light, and they share some of their food energy with their polyp in exchange for a residence within the light spectrum necessary for that bacterium (Beneficial Bacteria, 2006).

Humans use bacteria extensively, such as in the manufacture of pickles, cheese, wine, and yogurt (Beneficial Bacteria, 2006). In addition to their fermentation qualities, some bacteria used in the yogurt making process, when ingested, can help to cure infections due to the over growth of yeast, such as thrush and vaginal yeast infections. Bacteria are now being used in mining operations to render inert the cyanide in the water used to break down the surrounding rock. After being put through enormous drums full of the bacteria, the poison is rendered harmless and the water can be safely routed back into the ecosystem. Bacteria are also being used in agriculture for leguminous crops, sewage disposal plants, in toxic waste disposal, and to break down oil spills (Bacteria: Life, 2006).

In nature, bacteria are responsible for the greatest part of the decomposition process, the cleaning crew of the world, cycling carbon, nitrogen, and other compounds back into the ecosystem (Bacteria: Life, 2006). Bacteria are also present in the intestinal tracts of all organisms, without which they would be unable to digest and process many of their foods. Koalas have a specific bacterium in their digestive system that allows them to eat eucalyptus without harm. Komodo dragons use the bacteria in their mouths as slow acting venom. All they have to do is bite their victim, then wait a few hours or days for them to die; a strategy that allows them to take down large prey while minimizing their chance of injury.

The second half of the problem is that, while antibacterials are killing 99% of bacteria, they have been multiplying rapidly. At any point in the reproductive process gene mutations can take place. This is not to say that mutation is incredibly common, but it is not uncommon either. Most mutations are either detrimental or inconsequential to the survival of the organism in question. Some mutations are adaptive to their environment, providing a dizzying array of plant, animal, marine, and bacterial life. Since bacteria tend to multiply at rates hundreds of times faster than that of larger organisms they have a much higher frequency of mutation. If then, a colony of bacteria is exposed to an antibacterial agent, and even one of the bacteria has acquired a mutation that allows it to survive the exposure, it can establish an entire new colony in just hours. The new colony will be made up entirely of a new, resistant, strain of bacteria, some of which may be changed from a harmless or beneficial bacterium, into a pathogen (Mutations, 2006).

Some bacteria are picked up in outdoor activity that can help a person or animal to strengthen their immune system and fight pathogenic bacteria before it ever enters their body (Beneficial Bacteria, 2006). However, in recent times Americans have become increasingly phobic of germs and bacteria. Stuart Levy, a geneticist at Tufts University is quoted as saying, "The public is just gobbling it up. There was a bandwagon, and it got bigger and bigger." Dr. Levy has also been heard to say how he longs for the days when kids were allowed to roll in the dirt, acquiring helpful bacteria in the process (Americans Are, 2006).

Dermatologists have also been warning people of the dangers of antibacterial products. The American Academy of Dermatology reported that, when overused, the harsh action of anti-bacterial products could lead to open sores that can then acquire bacteria, resulting in conditions like eczema. Antibacterial soaps strip the skin of its essential fatty acids, moisture, and amino acids that form a barrier between the skin and the inner body, creating vulnerability in the skin to infection. This then becomes a cycle in which a person with hand eczema touches a surface, leaving germs behind, to be picked up by the next person to touch that surface. When asked how often they wash their hands, patients with eczema reply with an average of 20-25 times a day (Antibacterial Soap, 2006). A public statement has also been issued advising people NOT to use antibacterial products on their infants or children, as the incidence of infection has become grossly inflated as a result (Americans Are, 2006).
Antibiotics have been drastically over prescribed and misused in the past 60 years since penicillin was first discovered.

Due to the overuse and the tendency of patients to stop taking the medication for the full period of time prescribed (they felt better), bacteria colonies have not been wiped out in the process (Mutations, 2006). They have been exposed to the antibiotic and allowed to live on, resistant mutations and all. Some examples of this are pneumococcus (which causes pneumonia, meningitis, and kids ear infections), enterococcus (often found in wound infections), Malaria, and tuberculosis. Antibiotics have also been widely used in animal feed, to promote growth. This practice has developed resistant strains of E. Coli and Salmonella, which cause drastic suffering and often death in the consumer (Pathogenic Bacteria, 2006). Some strains have become so resistant that the most potent antibiotic currently in existence, vancomycin, has no effect. Vancomycin is so powerful that even administering it to a patient is very controversial, as it can also kill the patient (Drug Resistance, 2006).

Soap, water, and friction are a recipe for healthy cleaning. This method will remove the bacteria, without promoting adaptive mutations, or harming the integrity of your protective skin (Antibacterial Soap, 2006). By using the old-fashioned soaps, antibacterial free, the incidence of infection can be reduced. Bacteria will not be put into a fast forward mode of evolution (which is already occurring at an accelerated rate in comparison to larger species of organisms), and newer, deadlier forms of disease will not continue to be formed (Drug Resistance, 2006). In understanding that bacteria often perform essential functions in the ecosystem, and that the absence or mutation of these necessary bacteria would cause a deadly imbalance that would ripple throughout the world, it can be seen that sometimes less is more (Bacteria: Life, 2006).

Works Cited
Americans are too Clean, Experts Complain. Retrieved on February 12, 2006, from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2000/07/18/national0038EDT0400.DTL.
Antibacterial Soap Overuse May Help Spread Disease. Retrieved on February 12, 2006, from http://www.chiropracticresearch.org/NEWS_antibacterial_soap_overuse.htm.
Bacteria: Life History and Ecology. Retrieved on February 12, 2006, from http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/bacterialh.html.
Beneficial Bacteria. Retrieved on February 12, 2006, from http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0856810.html.
Drug resistance. Retrieved on February 12, 2006, from http://print.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0816137.html.
Mutation. Retrieved on February 12, 2006, from http://print.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0834606.html.
Pathogenic Bacteria. Retrieved on February 12, 2006, from http://print.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0856811.html.
Starr, C. and Taggart, R.(2004). Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life, Tenth Ed. United States: Wadsworth Group/Thomson Learning.