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FDA Orders Antibacterials Removed From Consumer Soaps

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Hawkeye10

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Say goodbye to those "antibacterial" soaps. The Food and Drug Administration says they do little or nothing to make soap work any better and said the industry has failed to prove they're safe.

Companies will have a year to take the ingredients out of the products, the FDA said. They include triclosan and triclocarban. Soap manufacturers will have an extra year to negotiate over other, less commonly used ingredients such as benzalkonium chloride.
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FDA Orders Antibacterials Removed From Consumer Soaps - NBC News

THey have been on the market how long?

NOW the government decides that they should not be??

NOW the "journalists" are saying that there was never scientific justification for them being used???

This is why we dont have any faith anymore in the elite in general and the government in particular, too much incompetence, too many very very late calls.
 
There is no justification for a lot of things we like to use so should the government ban a benign product because the government doesn't think you should have it? I realize banning things is a heck of a lot of fun for liberals but isn't there a line somewhere. What's next? Catsup?
 
Patrickt said:
There is no justification for a lot of things we like to use so should the government ban a benign product because the government doesn't think you should have it? I realize banning things is a heck of a lot of fun for liberals but isn't there a line somewhere. What's next? Catsup?
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I think this is more of a question of false advertisement.
 
Patrickt said:
There is no justification for a lot of things we like to use so should the government ban a benign product because the government doesn't think you should have it? I realize banning things is a heck of a lot of fun for liberals but isn't there a line somewhere. What's next? Catsup?
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Actually there is a developing good argument that working too hard to live in a germ free environment weakens our immune system, and long term is bad for us because when bad stuff shows up our body cant deal with it. Science is also looking into what if any part this plays in us becoming more allergic, which is part of the same issue.
 
Napoleon said:
I think this is more of a question of false advertisement.
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You pull adverts and fine for that, you dont pull products on government orders. This is getting pulled for safety reasons, yet they were allowed to gain a huge market share over decades. Only now does our government decide that was a bad idea.
 
This should have been done a LONG time ago. It's probably too late to matter much at this point.
 
BrewerBob said:
This should have been done a LONG time ago. It's probably too late to matter much at this point.
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For the entire generation of Americans(or is it Two?) who have extensively used germ killers yes. This government who uses "SAFETY!" constantly as its main argument to grab power and boss us around totally mismanaged the war on microbes at many levels, and placed us at extreme risk. This is a major failure of the elite with major consequences.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
FDA Orders Antibacterials Removed From Consumer Soaps - NBC News

THey have been on the market how long?

NOW the government decides that they should not be??

NOW the "journalists" are saying that there was never scientific justification for them being used???

This is why we dont have any faith anymore in the elite in general and the government in particular, too much incompetence, too many very very late calls.
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So, your expectation is that the government should ban things before they have evidence of them being problematic.
 
Deuce said:
So, your expectation is that the government should ban things before they have evidence of them being problematic.
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My argument is that it should not take 40 years for the government to figure out the truth, that the government should have and should now take more interest in the success of the war on microbes, that the "journalists" all along should have been squawking " Um Folks, this might be a really bad idea and there is no science to suggest that this is a good idea", that Americans suck at prioritizing, the elite lie constantly, the elite are incompetent generally, just because someone says something does not mean that it is true, just because something sounds good does not mean that it is, just because the government allows something to be sold for decades does not mean that it is not bad for us.....
 
Only in stupid land does not being to sell a product using false advertisement constitute a violation of anybody's rights.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
My argument is that it should not take 40 years for the government to figure out the truth, that the government should have and should now take more interest in the success of the war on microbes, that the "journalists" all along should have been squawking " Um Folks, this might be a really bad idea and there is no science to suggest that this is a good idea", that Americans suck at prioritizing, the elite lie constantly, the elite are incompetent generally, just because someone says something does not mean that it is true, just because something sounds good does not mean that it is, just because the government allows something to be sold for decades does not mean that it is not bad for us.....
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I'm sorry that the government doesn't have all the answers to every aspect of our lives.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
FDA Orders Antibacterials Removed From Consumer Soaps - NBC News

THey have been on the market how long?

NOW the government decides that they should not be??

NOW the "journalists" are saying that there was never scientific justification for them being used???

This is why we dont have any faith anymore in the elite in general and the government in particular, too much incompetence, too many very very late calls.
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More odd stuff from that link:

Triclosan breaks open the cell walls of bacteria, killing them. But it takes several hours to do this, so it does little good in the time it takes to wash and dry hands.
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The proposed rule only affects hand soaps and body washes. Triclosan is often used in toothpaste and it's been shown to help kill germs that cause gum disease.
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How does the same chemical agent "work" in tootpaste but "does little good" in hand/body washes? It would seem that rinsing well or using a mouthwash would make (slow acting?) triclosan just as ineffective in toothpaste.
 
Deuce said:
I'm sorry that the government doesn't have all the answers to every aspect of our lives.
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With as much money as we and our kids and grandkids spend on government, with all the power that government has accumulated, we should be able to expect better. The government is at least 20 years late on this problem. More like 30.

Note: I say this as a socialist who does not have a problem at base with big and/or powerful government, but who has a huge problem with big powerful bad government, and as a socialist who demands that the elite be taken to the woodshed for their lies and incompetence over a long period of time.
 
The team exposed 20 bacterial strains to plain and triclosan-containing soaps for 20s at room temperature and then slightly warmer temperatures – conditions that were chosen to simulate home hand washing. They also contaminated the hands of volunteers with Serratia marcescens bacteria to test how well each soap removed bacteria.
The results revealed there was no significant difference in bactericidal activity between plain soap and antibacterial soap at either test temperature, although after 9 hours the soap containing triclosan showed significantly greater bactericidal effects.
Honestly, we expected the results to a certain degree,' says Rhee. 'The antiseptic effect of triclosan depends on its exposure concentration and time; however, commercial antibacterial soaps on the market generally contain less than 0.3% triclosan and washing hands takes only a few seconds.’
'This adds to the extensive literature suggesting that triclosan does not provide a benefit when used in a "real world" setting compared to plain soap,' comments epidemiologist Allison Aiello at the University of North Carolina, US, who has published a review of several studies that tested triclosan products in the real world
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Antibacterial Soap Has Poor Killing Power - Scientific American

You do not put microbe killers out into the world and then use them so poorly that they dont actually kill the microbes. We should have learned this after our massive failure to use antibiotics correctly. We know all about how organism adapt, and gain resistance to that which we are using to try to kill them.

Allowing antibiotic soap onto the market place for 40+ years was a gross failure of government.
 
I think that it is the same as the whole anti-biotic thing and why people get sicker than when they use to. they don't come into contact with bacteria and develop and immunity to it.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
With as much money as we and our kids and grandkids spend on government, with all the power that government has accumulated, we should be able to expect better. The government is at least 20 years late on this problem. More like 30.

Note: I say this as a socialist who does not have a problem at base with big and/or powerful government, but who has a huge problem with big powerful bad government, and as a socialist who demands that the elite be taken to the woodshed for their lies and incompetence over a long period of time.
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In typical government fashion, there was probably an office of 25 people assigned this task 29 years ago. Now that they are all ready to retire, they decided it was time to get the hell out and issue the order, since they are ready to retire, their mission (retirement) fulfilled.
 
Hatuey said:
Only in stupid land does not being to sell a product using false advertisement constitute a violation of anybody's rights.
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That's not the OP's complaint, his complaint was the government should've been on this decades ago.
 
Formaldehyde (a known human carcinogen) bears a similarity and relation to formic acid. It is still used in many personal care products including body/baby soap, shampoo, and cosmetics. Its use is banned in Japan and Sweden and restricted in the EU and Canada. In California, the product/container must include a warning that the product contains a known carcinogen.

However, the soap/beauty industry has found a way around directly using and/or listing formaldehyde in the ingredients. They substitute chemical compounds of formaldehyde-releasing preservatives (FRPs). When this substance comes into contact with water, it releases (leaches) formaldehyde gas.

You'd be amazed how many personal care products use FRPs which are usually listed as "inactive ingredients" on product labels. Known FRPs include quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, polyoxymethylene urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol (bromopol) and glyoxal.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Actually there is a developing good argument that working too hard to live in a germ free environment weakens our immune system, and long term is bad for us because when bad stuff shows up our body cant deal with it. Science is also looking into what if any part this plays in us becoming more allergic, which is part of the same issue.
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Should the government ban something, no matter how much they enjoy it, if the argument is developing? Shouldn't one wait for the argument to have some conclusion?
 
Napoleon said:
I think this is more of a question of false advertisement.
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I'm afraid I think it's more of a question of the government overreach. False advertising carries a criminal penalty. Come to think of it, does any give us more false advertising than politicians, bureaucrats and the government?
 
Hawkeye10 said:
FDA Orders Antibacterials Removed From Consumer Soaps - NBC News

THey have been on the market how long?

NOW the government decides that they should not be??

NOW the "journalists" are saying that there was never scientific justification for them being used???

This is why we dont have any faith anymore in the elite in general and the government in particular, too much incompetence, too many very very late calls.
Click to expand...



Freaking fantatic news probably to late but still great news.
 
EMNofSeattle said:
That's not the OP's complaint, his complaint was the government should've been on this decades ago.
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Actually I slammed the "journalists" as well, and I mean to slam the academics too, as the elite of all stripes who were in a position to know the truth but refused to speak it are guilty.

Does America employ Surgeon Generals anymore?

Where were they?
 
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Patrickt said:
I'm afraid I think it's more of a question of the government overreach. False advertising carries a criminal penalty. Come to think of it, does any give us more false advertising than politicians, bureaucrats and the government?
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These are not Twinkies we are talking about...the war on microbes is a government concern, an important one in fact, or should be. Our current government seems to have great difficulty correctly prioritizing.
 
I've always avoided anti-bacterial soap. Regular soap gets germs off your hands just fine. The anti-bacterials are creating super bugs too and that's no good.

It's a good example of how the reasoning of "we always knew there was no good reason for it" gets applied after the fact. The news media and government are tight comrades that will always justify one another.
 
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