FDA Questions Antibacterial Soap Safety

WASHINGTON — On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it would require soap manufacturers to demonstrate that the substances were safe or they would be required to take them out of the products altogether, according to the New York Times.

The proposal was applauded by public health experts, who have been urging the agency to regulate antimicrobial chemicals for years, warning that they risk "scrambling hormones in children and promoting drug-resistant infections," the article stated.

According to the article, the proposed rule does not require producers of the soaps to take them off the market immediately; the FDA has given companies a year to "produce data showing that the chemicals are both safe and effective."

If companies cannot prove that their products are safe, the chemicals will need to be removed, the article noted.

The rule will be open for public comment for 180 days, and does not currently apply to hand sanitizers, which will be considered separately, the article added.

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Most Hands Are Not Being Washed Long Enough

IRVINE, CA — U.S. research is indicating that only 5 percent of those who use a restroom wash their hands long enough to kill the germs that cause infection, according to the United Press International.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Environmental Health, indicates a third of the people involved in the study didn't use soap and an alarming 10 percent didn't wash their hands at all, the article stated.

According to the article, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that it takes 15 to 20 seconds of vigorous hand-washing to effectively kill germs, but the study found that, on average, people are only washing their hands for roughly six seconds.

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