Antibacterial soap may seem like a good idea for your hands, but it’s really not great for the environment. Once soap goes down our drains, antibacterial chemicals travel from our sinks to wastewater treatment plants, which are not designed to treat them. So antibacterial chemicals are released into the environment where they can affect microbes in our natural water and even drinking water sources. By exposing microbes to antibacterial chemicals, they become “stronger” and able to resist higher concentrations of antibiotics that are critical to the success of modern medicine. And anyway, antibacterial soap is no better than plain soap.
Author: Dr. Erica Hartmann
Deptartment of Civil & Environmental Enginerring, Northwestern University, Evanston,IL, USA