Triclosan = Toxic Soap, Find Safer Soaps

Picture by T.K. Naliaka – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

Triclosan in soap, is it helping or harming us? That’s the question researchers at the University of California, San Francisco asked. Triclosan is added to soap to supposedly make it tougher against the germs. Thousands of other products also contain this synthetic chemical including cosmetics, acne creams, and Colgate Total toothpaste

UCSF researchers decided to determine how much triclosan people absorb. Since doctors and nurses wash their hands repeatedly throughout the day, they seemed like a good group to study. The study included 38 doctors and nurses at 2 different hospitals. One hospital used an antibacterial soap containing 0.3% triclosan and the second hospital used just plain soap without the triclosan. Analyzing the urine collected from the doctors and nurses determined that the ones using the soap with triclosan had significantly higher urinary levels of triclosan than the ones using the plain soap.

A co-investigator in the study, Paul Blanc, MD, professor of medicine and holder of the Endowed Chair in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, said, “Antimicrobial soaps can carry unknown risks, and triclosan is of particular concern. Our study shows that people absorb this chemical at work and at home, depending on the products that they use.”

In light of an ever increasing body of research implicating health problems associated with triclosan, the FDA has engaged in reviewing its safety. These are some of the problems of concern:

• It may cause problems during the development of babies in the womb and newborn stage of life.
• It may interfere with proper hormone function in adults.
• It may adversely affect the environment when it’s drained into the water table.

Because of these concerns Dr. Blanc recommends ditching the triclosan and simply use good old soap and water for hand washing.

I agree with him. Minimize exposure to chemicals. Our bodies are already being overwhelmed with a toxic load of chemicals daily, especially if we are not diligent in consciously avoiding them. A physician who detoxifies people with a sauna/exercise/supplement regimen told me 15 to 20 years ago that everyone he tested had 300-400 different chemicals stored in their fat cells. That’s a huge load for our bodies to handle.

Look for personal care products that are free of chemicals. Resolve to only put healthy products in or on your skin. Since finding those products can take time and detective work, you can start your research here with this infographic:

Safe Personal Care Products

Then for consider more in depth information from my Health Report “Decrease the Chemical Load”.

https://www.drjomd.com/products/reports-decrease-chemical-load/

” If you’re already at that point of dis-ease you better take a look at decreasing the chemical exposures in your environment. You may be surprised at what you’re subjecting yourself to every day and at how much control you have over it.

If you haven’t reached the chemical over load saturation point yet in your body, it would behoove you to clean up your environment too so you never get to that miserable point.

And if you have children for sure clean up your environment to keep these most precious susceptible little bodies from accumulating toxic chemicals.

Dr. Jo takes you through the steps of investigating the cleaning products, personal care items (cosmetics, lotions, shampoo, healthier products to replace the more toxic ones.

Also, toxic chemicals hide in your food and drink. Remember, the vast majority of these toxins have no taste or smell, so you cannot detect them with your senses. Therefore, you must use your mind and intelligence to discover which foods contain them and then make healthier choices.

Wisdom, defined as knowledge applied with good judgment, becomes your best weapon in decreasing and preventing the chemical load accumulation in your tissues.”

Decrease the Chemical Load