– FDA finally admits antibacterial soap ingredients are unsafe – and ineffective
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Triclosan
What is triclosan in toothpaste? Learn about this carcinogenic substance so you can get it out of your daily routine
And not to forget fluoride …
“Fluoride causes more human cancer, and causes it faster, than any other chemical.”
– Dean Burk, Chief Chemist Emeritus, US National Cancer Institute
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Cancer is everywhere these days, it seems, and much of it is attributable to our modern lives: It is found in the foods we eat, caused by the devices we use and is ever present in the air we breathe.
And now, it seems, it is even in our toothpaste – a brand you may be using without even knowing it is likely carcinogenic.
As reported by Newsweek, the ingredient is a germicide known as triclosan, which is found in Colgate Total, a much-used brand manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive. Marketed since 1997, the company says it is the “only toothpaste approved by the FDA to help fight plaque and gingivitis” – which it does by lathering your teeth with triclosan.
Study: Chemical Triclosan Widely Used In Antibacterial Hand Soaps Impairs Muscle Function
– Chemical widely used in antibacterial hand soaps may impair muscle function (EurekAlert, Aug 13, 2012):
Triclosan, an antibacterial chemical widely used in hand soaps and other personal-care products, hinders muscle contractions at a cellular level, slows swimming in fish and reduces muscular strength in mice, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of Colorado. The findings appear online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
“Triclosan is found in virtually everyone’s home and is pervasive in the environment,” said Isaac Pessah, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biosciences in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and principal investigator of the study. “These findings provide strong evidence that the chemical is of concern to both human and environmental health.”
Triclosan is commonly found in antibacterial personal-care products such as hand soaps as well as deodorants, mouthwashes, toothpaste, bedding, clothes, carpets, toys and trash bags. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1998 estimated that more than 1 million pounds of triclosan are produced annually in the United States, and that the chemical is detectable in waterways and aquatic organisms ranging from algae to fish to dolphins, as well as in human urine, blood and breast milk.
Read moreStudy: Chemical Triclosan Widely Used In Antibacterial Hand Soaps Impairs Muscle Function
Antibacterial Soaps: Chemical Ingedient Triclosan Produces Toxic Dioxins
For a list of products containing the chemical see page four of ‘The Ubiquitous Triclosan’, in pdf from Beyond Pesticides.
(NaturalNews) Dioxins are a group of highly toxic compounds that are persistent environmental pollutants. People are exposed to dioxins through the environment and the food chain — the highest levels of these compounds are found in soils, sediments and food such as dairy products, meat, fish and shellfish. And, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), this exposure can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer.
So you would never flush dioxins into your water supply, right? If you use antibacterial soaps and other antibacterial products, you could be doing the equivalent of just that.
In 2003 and 2009, University of Minnesota civil engineering professor William Arnold and his colleague Kristopher McNeill published their discovery that the antibacterial agent triclosan, when exposed to sunlight, generates a specific group of four dioxins. Now, in a new study, a team of scientists from the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology, Pace Analytical (Minneapolis), the Science Museum of Minnesota and Virginia Tech, have documented how triclosan is transformed into dioxins that are accumulating in the environment. This research, just published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, concludes dioxins originating from triclosan (found in many hand soaps, deodorants and dishwashing liquids) account for a huge increase in total dioxins now polluting Mississippi River sediments.
Efforts to cut down on dioxin contamination resulting from industrial pollution have been underway for several decades. However, the issue of triclosan in antibacterial consumer products has been virtually ignored. And the research team has found that over the last 30 years, while levels of all the other dioxins have dropped by 73 to 90 percent, the levels of dioxins derived from the antibacterial soap ingredient triclosan have risen by 200 to 300 percent.
For the new study, which was headed by Jeff Buth, a recent University of Minnesota Ph.D. graduate in chemistry, the researchers examined sediment samples from Lake Pepin, an enlargement of the Mississippi River located 120 miles downstream from the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. They analyzed sediment cores (which contain a record of accumulated pollutants in the lake over the past 50 years) and checked for amounts of triclosan, the four dioxins derived from triclosan, and the entire family of dioxin chemicals.
The results? In the most current sediments, triclosan-derived dioxins account for about 30 percent of the total dioxin mass. “These four dioxins only come from triclosan. They didn’t exist in Lake Pepin before triclosan was introduced,” Dr. Arnold said in a statement to the media.
Read moreAntibacterial Soaps: Chemical Ingedient Triclosan Produces Toxic Dioxins