Soap and Anti-bacteria Sanitizer, Which one is better ?

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a prohibition to forbid sales of anti-bacteria bath products. Such products actually don’t play a stronger role than ordinary soap in preventing disease or its spreading. What’s more, they might harm human body after long-time use.

In general, most people have the though that anti-bacteria products can prevent disease spreading or bacteria growth. In contrast, Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research of FDA, says that there is no scientific proof that can indicate the better efficacy of anti-bacteria products than ordinary soap in preventing bacteria. Furthermore, some research figures indicate that long-time use of these anti-bacteria will cause harm to human body.

The prohibition declared 19 specified ingredients and mainly abandoned anti-bacteria bath products containing one or more ingredients among the 19 ingredients. For example, triclosan and triclocarban are the two ingredients mostly used in liquid, foam or gel satinizer, soap and shower gel. FDA also cited some research data to show that those who contact these 19 ingredients for a longtime will be influenced on their drug resistance, hormone secretion and body health. Except the 19 ingredients being prohibited publicly, FDA clearly stated that anti-bacteria bath products containing benzalkonium chloride, carthionium chloride and xylenol can keep being sold. And the organization would evaluate their safety and efficacy in the following days.

In addition, FDA also represented that bacteria spreading could be effectively avoided by washing our hands with ordinary soap and running water. If we use disposable hand sanitizer, the proportion of alcohol to the sanitizer should be at least 60%.