What You Need to Know About Hand Disinfectants

Good old fashion hand washing with a mild soap is just what our moms have told us to do to be clean and stop the spread of germs. Studies are revealing that disinfectants commonly used in homes and medical facilities can INCREASE THE RESISTANCE of some life-saving antibiotics! In laboratory experiments, researchers showed that germs can rapidly mutate, building resistance to progressively higher doses of disinfectants known as BSK, or benzalkonium chloride. BSK is used in cleaning and disinfecting products to kill bacteria, fungi and algae. In the research the germs/bacteria developed resistance up to 400 times greater than the non-mutated strain. The strain P.aeruginosa built up immunity against ciprofloxacin up to 10 times more than the baseline bacteria. The bacteria outgrew the so-called 'sensitive' strains so rapidly it was had to believe! That means that we have a problem - disinfectants may highly increase antibiotic resistance. Reconsider the casual use of hand sanitizers and other cleaning agents. Remember what our Moms said, wash your hands!