![\"Hand](\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/media\/handwashing_D_20090910121843.jpg\")
Is antibacterial soap better to cleanse your hands of germs than regular soap and water?<\/p>\nIs antibacterial soap better to cleanse your hands of germs than regular soap and water?<\/p>\n
That\u0092s one question weighing on the FDA as it conducts a safety review of triclosan, an ingredient designed to fight bacteria that\u0092s in a variety of consumer products, including liquid hand soap, kitchenware and even some toys and clothing.<\/p>\n
The agency disclosed the \u0093scientific and regulatory review of the safety of triclosan in FDA-regulated products,\u0094 in a statement<\/a> posted to its Web site.<\/p>\n The FDA announced its review after queries from Rep. Edward J. Markey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee\u0092s subcommittee on Energy and the Environment. He sent letters to the FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year about triclosan. Triclosan is regulated as an antimicrobial active ingredient by EPA while the FDA oversees its use in consumer products.<\/p>\n In a letter to Markey released today, the FDA said it shares Markey’s concern about the potential effects of triclosan and triclocarban as “endocrine disruptors\u0094 that can adversely affect the function of hormones. Evidence of such effects has emerged since the FDA last addressed the use of triclosan in consumer products in 1994.<\/p>\n The agency said its safety review would take about a year. It is also writing a proposed rule that could potentially limit use of triclosan in consumer products, but couldn\u0092t say how soon the rule would be finished.<\/p>\n FDA said it would likely propose to regulate consumer hand-wash products separately from those marketed to health-care professionals where the \u0093risk of exposure to pathogenic bacteria is high.\u0094 But that’s not what the soap industry’s trade group thinks. The Soap and Detergent Association said it was concerned about some of FDA’s statements, adding there was evidence that antibacterial products containing triclosan killed more germs than plain soap.<\/p>\n “Antibacterial ingredients like triclosan are regulated by governmental bodies around the world and have a long track record of human and environmental safety, many of whom have specifically found these ingredients to be safe for use in hygiene and cleaning products,” the group said.<\/p>\n Image: iStockphoto<\/em><\/p>\n Is antibacterial soap better to cleanse your hands of germs than regular soap and water? That\u0092s one question weighing on the FDA as it conducts a safety review of triclosan, an ingredient designed to fight bacteria that\u0092s in a variety of consumer products, including liquid hand soap, kitchenware and even some toys and clothing. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6685,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor now, it added, it doesn\u0092t have evidence that triclosan in antibacterial soap offers a benefit beyond soap and water.<\/p>\n<\/img><\/a>
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