Antimicrobial Chemicals (Part 2)

OK – What about antibacterial soap products? Enhancing the germ killing effects of soap and water with industrial level germ killing chemicals may seem like a good idea on the surface. However, once we look deeply nto it red flags start popping up all over the place.

Anti-microbial soap products, and pretty much every non-alcohol based consumer sanitizer, uses Triclosan as the germ killing ingredient. Triclosan is the trade name for polychlorinated phenoxy phenols. Read the words carefully. This is not a breakfast drink. Triclosan kills germs at 6 parts per million. Think about it. 6 molecules per million and it still kills 99.995 of ALL germs, allegedly with zero side effects to humans.

Incredulous? You should be. If something doesn’t pass the commonsense test, it is unlikely to be true.

Triclosan is “Agent Orange” with an extra carbon atom. Have you ever someone who was exposed to Agent Orange in ‘Nam? I met a guy who’s skin turned orange and he shook all the time. Not a pretty sight.

I suspect that future generations will look back on this poor deluded civilization and lament, “If only they had studied the chemistry and applied the cautionary principle to everything they created…”

The Cautionary Principal holds that no new and unique molecules or life forms shall be propagated until we are really, really sure that no long term harm will come from them. Big business and the right wing pundits and politicians they own and support absolutely hate the Cautionary Principal. They are convinced that it would destroy our economy and our way of life.

Some hold, and I concur that slowing down the promulgation of new and novel substances and life forms until sure of the long term Unintended Consequences of our collective actions is in fact, a profound act of sanity.

Unlike humans, molecules don’t lie – they just follow their nature. And so should we!