Are Anti-bacterial soaps a neccessity or just a hype?

My son made a comment that got me thinking about a TV commercial advertising automatic hand soap dispensers.
“Are you really going to touch the dispenser AFTER you’ve washed off whatever was on your hands?”
Words from babes.

I taught pathology to massage therapists emphasizing on the simplicity of hand washing that lead to one of the greatest discoveries of our era, germs that made people sick. It’s not the warm water, you’d need water between 167-212 degrees to kill viruses, much too hot for our hands. Warm water was recommended for the purpose of comfort to encourage people to wash more frequently. Who wants to wash in cold water? Chemical germicides like anti-bacterial soaps need to be used at certain concentrations and used for certain lengths of time. Not sure about you, but how long is that? 2 minutes? Applying a surfactant (surface active agents, the slippery and lathery stuff) surrounds the viruses and bacteria and when combined with rubbing your hands together emulsifies these little buggers and are rinsed away under running water. Gels & lotions like hand sanitizers containing 60% alcohol get rubbed in and need to be left to dry. Hand sanitizers should only be used when soap and water is not available & should never be used to replace hand washing, EVER.

Killing everything on your hands isn’t always a good thing. Our bodies build immunity to these germs. It’s one reason super bugs are taking over, they’re the only one’s left. The 99.9% of the germs being killed are the weakest leaving behind the strongest of the strain to multiply. Not good.

DON’T BE A PSEUDO HAND WASHER! Nothing irks me more than seeing women coming out of a restroom stall rinsing their finger tips under the tap with only water, grabbing a paper towel, drying and not wanting to touch the handle going out. Pointless. So you didn’t happen to get anything on your hands but perhaps the person before you “missed” then touched the door knob going out of the stall, touching the faucet handle spreading her viruses and bacteria, just to do a pseudo wash. No soap, it’s still on their hands now on yours.  Restrooms are great environments for transmitting disease, urine, fecal matter, saliva & blood. Why would you not use soap in a place like that? PLEASE use soap for your health and ours.

Simple tips that have saved me from getting sick:

1. Using hand sanitizers sparingly when you’re handling things like money, public surfaces, grocery cart handles, etc. I keep hand sanitizer in my car just in case.

2. Using wipes on the unsuspecting culprits that breed germs that NEVER get washed. (Do this occasionally, don’t get carried away) Car keys, steering wheels, purse & bag handles, wallet, credit cards, dog leash, shoe laces, cell phone covers, etc.

3. After anyone is sick in your home, wipe things down like light switches, toilet flush handles, washing machine & dryer knobs, etc.

4. Wash frequently with a gentle, plain soap containing no anti-bacterial chemicals. Use lotions to prevent drying. I’d rather have dry hands than get sick.

5. Keep your hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth.

So after finding these little germ spreading items I highly doubt pumping soap into your hands your going to rub your eyes or put your hands in your mouth with a handful of soap. I’d be more worried out the faucet handles that you’ve touched before & AFTER you’ve washed your hands. Just wash the soap dispenser with the soap inside the dispenser? Not sure who invented this or why.

Here’s are 3 reason’s on why it’s bad not only for you but for the environment on using anti-bacterial hand soaps.
http://thedelicioustruth.blogspot.com/2011/12/best-of-2011-do-not-use-antibacterial.html