Potency of Antibacterial Soap vs. Regular Soap

As part of a cleanliness-obsessed society, people are often concerned about the amount of bacteria they come in contact with. Since hands come into contact with outside surfaces often, washing your hands with antibacterial soap became pretty popular. But is it really necessary? Are there any benefits to using antibacterial soap vs. regular soap?

How Does Soap Keep You Clean?

Before going into whether to use antibacterial vs. regular soap, it’s important to know how soap works first. Soap molecules have a polar (water-soluble) and non-polar end (not water-soluble). Stuff that’s water-soluble washes right off with water, so you don’t need soap to get it off. But for things like oils and dirt particles that aren’t water-soluble, you need soap. The non-polar ends of soap molecules bind to the stuff that’s not water soluble, making the polar ends face the water. This effectively makes the whole clump water-soluble and easy to wash off.

This effect helps get bacteria and other pathogens off your hands. The fact that you wash your hands longer with soap than without it (to get the soap off) also helps.

Antibacterial soap goes one step further and has an active ingredient in it that kills bacteria. The most commonly used ones are triclosan and triclocarban, though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned their use in consumer antibacterial soaps and body washes in 2016.

Triclosan and Triclocarban

These two compounds are closely related and function in similar ways. Of the two, triclosan is the more commonly used.

Triclosan’s antibacterial properties come from its ability to prevent bacteria from making fatty acids (the stuff that makes up their cell membranes). This prevents them from proliferating. Our cells don’t use the enzyme that triclosan affects, so they’re not affected.

Due to its effectiveness at stopping bacterial populations from increasing, it’s used in a wide variety of hygiene-related products. For example, triclosan-coated sutures help prevent infection in the surgical area. Triclosan also helps prevent dental plaque and gingivitis when it’s in toothpaste.

How Useful Is Antibacterial Soap vs. Regular Soap?

The short answer is not really. Unless you need stuff to be as sterile as possible (like in healthcare settings), regular soap works just as well in reducing illnesses from bacteria. That’s the main reason that the FDA banned the use of 19 compounds (including triclosan and triclocarban) in antibacterial soaps and body washes for regular consumers. Three other compounds (benzalkonium chloride, benzethonium chloride, and chloroxylenol) are still allowed and have reviews pending. It’s important to note that this ban doesn’t apply to hand sanitizers (stuff you wash your hands with and leave on instead of wash off), though the FDA is requesting that manufacturers provide additional scientific data that the antibacterial compounds in them are both safe and effective.

Washing your hands with regular soap already reduces the amount of bacteria on your hands by about 80%. Although antibacterial soap may kill more bacteria, it’s not necessary to reduce their numbers that much to reduce the chance of illness. Bacteria is everywhere, so trying to make yourself as bacteria-free as possible is a losing battle. Not only that, bacteria aren’t the only causes of illness. Viruses and fungi also cause illness and most antibacterial compounds have little to no effect dealing with these at consumer-level concentrations.

Disadvantages of Using Antibacterial Soap

In addition to being relatively ineffective, there are several reasons why you shouldn’t use antibacterial soap.

Bacterial Resistance

Like with all antibiotics, overusing antibacterial compounds can increase bacterial resistance to those compounds. The compounds kill weak bacteria but leave behind bacteria that have genes that allowed them to survive. These bacteria take over the empty space left behind and spread.

The World Health Organization calls the rise of these antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” one of today’s biggest health threats. Needlessly using antibacterial compounds and releasing them into the environment only increases that threat.

Loss of Beneficial Bacteria

Antibacterial compounds indiscriminately kill a wide variety of bacteria, including beneficial ones. There’s evidence that the microbial ecosystem on your skin helps your immune system defend against harmful pathogens by priming it to attack only the harmful ones. The harmless bacterial also compete with the harmful ones, keeping their numbers in check.

In some cases, normal skin bacteria even assist the immune system in killing harmful bacteria. For example, Staphylococcus epidermidis can produce compounds that inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus (responsible for some skin and respiratory infections and some kinds of food poisoning) and Group A Streptococcus bacteria (responsible for strep throat and impetigo).

Damage to the Environment

All the antibacterial stuff in antibacterial soap gets washed down the drain and ends up in the environment. Once out in the open, they have the potential to kill or disrupt all sorts of life, not only bacteria. This can affect the balance of the local ecosystem, especially if it disrupts important organisms like algae. Not only that, it’s possible that some of these compounds could accumulate in organisms and move up the food chain (as was the case with triclosan).

Potential Health Risk

Since antibacterial soap isn’t much better than plain soap, it’s not worth it to have any needless exposure to antibacterial compounds. Periodic exposure, especially over long periods of time, could lead to some adverse effects. So if you don’t absolutely need it, it’s best not to use it.