Say goodbye to antibacterial soaps

Have you ever purchased a hand soap with the encouraging statement “kills 99.99% of germs*” slapped on the label? Well, a recent ruling by the Food and Drug Administration will have most of these products off the shelves by next year.

In addition to the disclaimer signaled by that asterisk (it probably doesn’t kill a lot of the germs you want it to), it turns out there isn’t any evidence that antibacterial soaps are more effective than other hand soaps. This was the logic behind the recent FDA rule: antibacterial products aren’t more effective, but they do pose some risks.

“Consumers may think antibacterial washes are more effective at preventing the spread of germs, but we have no scientific evidence that they are any better than plain soap and water,” said Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “In fact, some data suggests that antibacterial ingredients may do more harm than good over the long-term.”

Antibacterial soaps pose two general risks that keep public health experts up at night.

The first is antibiotic resistance, a growing trend responsible for 2 million infections each year in the United States alone. According to the CDC, 23,000 people die every year from infections that no antibiotic can treat. In 2014, the White House launched a national plan to combat antibiotic resistance, which aims to reduce excessive use of antibacterial products and provide incentives to develop new drugs.

The chemicals used in antibacterial products also pose a health threat in a more direct way. The FDA rule applies to 19 chemicals found in about 40 percent of soaps. The two most common chemicals are TCS (triclosan) and TCC (triclocarban), found in liquid soaps and soap bars, respectively. Both TCS and TCC are known endocrine disruptors that accumulate in the environment and human bodies.

Rolf Halden is a professor at Arizona State University who studies the connections between man-made products, water cycle, and human health. Halden’s team has found antimicrobial chemicals in the sewage sludge in wastewater treatment plants in over 160 U.S. cities, evidence that these chemicals persist for years.

The persistence of TCS and TCC is worrisome because these chemicals are endocrine disruptors - chemicals that interfere with brain development, reproduction, and the immune system. While endocrine disruptors pose the greatest risk during prenatal and early postnatal development, one of Halden’s studies found TCS in 97 percent of breast milk samples. The conclusion public health experts reached years ago was that these chemicals place unnecessary risk on newborn’s health.

While some industry groups oppose the rule, many of the biggest companies have already started removing the chemicals from their products, partly in reaction to rising consumer concerns. As the New York Times reports, both Johnson and Johnson and Proctor & Gamble announced they would phase out the chemicals before the final FDA rule was made.

The current decision doesn’t apply to hand sanitizers and other antibacterial wipes, but the FDA has requested data on three active ingredients found in most of these products. The current rule goes into effect one year from September, so consumers will soon have to say goodbye to antibacterial soaps.