Toothpaste Cancer Alert

[xoxoxoBruce]

From The London Evening Standard

Dozens of toothpastes sold at supermarkets are at the centre of a cancer alert today.
Anti-bacterial cleaning products, including dishwashing liquid and handwash, are also affected.
Researchers have discovered that triclosan, a chemical in the products, can react with water to produce chloroform gas. If inhaled in large enough quantities, chloroform can cause depression, liver problems and, in some cases, cancer.

Professor Peter Vikesland, of Virginia Tech University, who carried out the research, said: "This is the first work that we know of that suggests that consumer products, such as antimicrobial soap, can produce significant quantities of chloroform."

I've worried these anti-bacterial products would backfire by reducing resistance in kids to germs, bacteria mutating into something unkillable or just poisoning people.
Chloroform sounds like poison to me. Right now they say the chlorine in the public water systems but chlorine equivilents can be found in any water. There might be other stuff that reacts with Triclosan also.

[staceyv]

whew! I'm safe- I just ran and checked my toothpaste! I don't buy antibacterial soap because I think it's stupid- people are way too paranoid about germs. You can kill every microbe on your hands, but as soon as you touch the faucet to rinse, they're all right back again...And it leads to bacterial resistance like you mentioned.

[Beestie]

I'm toast.

[melidasaur]

We stopped using anti-bacterial products in our house about 4 year ago... we don't want to contribute to the development of resistant strains. Good bye anti-bacterial hand sanitizer - which I do not use.

[wolf]

Given what I'm exposed to on a daily basis, the risks posed by antibacterial hand soap are miniscule compared to what it's meant to protect me from.

[russotto]

Cool. Now if I can figure out how to get all the chloroform to be released at once, I've got a soap bar that doubles as knockout gas.

[mrnoodle]

I'd think you'd have to use a whole whole lot of soap and toothpaste to generate the amount of chloroform needed to cause sickness. Maybe someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder who couldn't stop washing would get cancer, but only real danger to the rest of us is the possibility of slipping on a bar of soap and hitting our head.

The Onion has a funny piece on French's Antibacterial Mustard this week, btw.