Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday September 03 2016, @07:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the washing-their-hands-of-it dept.

In a final ruling announced Friday, the Food and Drug Administration is pulling from the market a wide range of antimicrobial soaps after manufacturers failed to show that the soaps are both safe and more effective than plain soap. The federal flushing applies to any hand soap or antiseptic wash product that has one or more of 19 specific chemicals in them, including the common triclosan (found in antibacterial hand soap) and triclocarbon (found in bar soaps). Manufacturers will have one year to either reformulate their products or pull them from the market entirely.

[...] The ruling does not affect alcohol-based hand sanitizers or wipes, which the agency is reviewing separately. It also does not affect antiseptic products used in healthcare settings.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/fda-bans-antibacterial-soaps-no-scientific-evidence-theyre-safe-effective/


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Touché) by mhajicek on Saturday September 03 2016, @02:39PM

    by mhajicek (51) on Saturday September 03 2016, @02:39PM (#397025)

    That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger, unless it makes you weaker. I used to work in machine shops where at least one machinist never washed his hands after using the bathroom. I got sick at least once a month. Now I run a shop at a medical device company where people have a more sophisticated understanding of hygiene, and I am far healthier.

    With your viewpoint I suggest you engage cheap prostitutes without protection, or at least lick shopping cart handles at Walmart.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Touché=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Francis on Saturday September 03 2016, @03:34PM

    by Francis (5544) on Saturday September 03 2016, @03:34PM (#397042)

    If your understanding of why you were getting sick is a lack of handwashing, then clearly the place you're working doesn't have anymore sophistication in terms of beliefs about handwashing. I wish germ theory would die, it's an outmoded and dangerous world view.

    It's a superstition that's been around for ages and causes a lot more harm than good. Unless you were coming down with a monthly case of ecoli or other food poisoning, I doubt very much that anybody's hygiene is to blame for your getting sick. More likely, there was something else in the environment causing it or it was just a coincidence. Flushing the toilet is going to expose you to more bacteria than you'd get via somebody's dirty hands touching something that you subsequently touch.

    If you're getting sick that many times during the year, that implies that there's something that you're doing wrong, not what other people are doing wrong. Even if nobody else is washing their hands, a person with a healthy immune system wouldn't be getting sick that frequently.

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday September 03 2016, @08:22PM

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 03 2016, @08:22PM (#397121) Journal

      The germ theory of disease is correct, and provably correct. It's not complete. You can't have a workable theory of disease without the germ theory, but you also need to understand the immune system, allergies, the differences between fungi, bacteria, viruses, and prions, etc.

          .
      Just because something is too complicated to explain fully in a general education class doesn't mean it's wrong.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday September 03 2016, @11:28PM

        by Francis (5544) on Saturday September 03 2016, @11:28PM (#397172)

        As far as medicine goes, microbes don't cause diseases, microbes in places they shouldn't be an in proportions they shouldn't be can cause disease. And that's not the current germ theory that the medical establishment is working with.

        If we abuse the term some sufficiently, we can come to the conclusion you have. But, at some point, you do have to just admit that the current theory is so woefully insufficient that it's going to kill us all. How many people are going to need to die from MRSA and other antibiotic resistant microbes before the theory gets yanked in favor of something that's a bit more effective?

        Not to mention unnecessary amputations when antibiotics don't work or liver disease from harsh chemicals being used in a misguided attempt to kill bacteria?

        • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday September 04 2016, @02:00AM

          by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 04 2016, @02:00AM (#397208) Journal

          microbes don't cause diseases, microbes in places they shouldn't be an in proportions they shouldn't be can cause disease.

          That's got a bunch of ill-defined conditions in it. I can give them values that make it work correctly, but those look like unstable states. In particular, it's almost(?) never true that one or two microbes of whatever kind in whatever place will cause a disease, but if they like the environment they won't stop at one or two, and populations of even usually harmless microbes can cause diseases. And what constitutes "a lot" varies with the kind of microbe, IIRC the classic example of this is cholera. Wikipedia says "About 100 million bacteria must typically be ingested to cause cholera in a normal healthy adult."

          It's also true that most microbes appear harmless, but even symbiotes can be deadly when their populations run out of check.

          --
          Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
  • (Score: 2) by danomac on Saturday September 03 2016, @06:32PM

    by danomac (979) on Saturday September 03 2016, @06:32PM (#397082)
    I work in a facility that provides services to families, with emphasis on children. Where I work, staff are constantly sick and gone for days at a time. I keep my own hands and face clean, and wash hands/face around a dozen times during work hours and I also keep an alcohol cleaner at my desk as I do have to occasionally visit workstations that had a sick person working on them.

    Since doing this, I haven't been sick at work - it's been almost ten years now. If you keep your own hands and face clean the chances of you catching something is a lot lower.