I recently had a very informative discussion with a friend, who is a professor in microbiology. He noticed that we use anti-bacterial soap in the bathroom and in the kitchen, and told me in no uncertain terms that I should get rid of them immediately. While I do not understand the intricacies of microbiology, the essence of his advice may be summarised as follows: bacteria replicate in huge numbers and have a very short lifespan. As a result, they rapidly develop a resistance to the anti-bacterial agents in these soaps and become what are commonly know as 'super-bugs'. While it may sound counter-intuitive, anti-bacterial soaps actually make things worse by encouraging the development of much more dangerous and resilient bacteria. The only way to combat these super-bugs is to use ever more powerful anti-bacterial agents. The TV ads for anti-bacterial soaps are particularly misleading and manipulative: they conveniently ignore the fact that the human body can only develop the anti-bodies to fight bacteria by being exposed to them, and often imply that you are a bad parent if you do not use these products. Despite not using these soaps, our parents and grandparents did not suffer from the kind of bacterial infections that they supposedly prevent.
