Green Group’s Unscientific Attack on Soap

NRDC claims that triclosan, the active ingredient in antibacterial soaps, disrupts human thyroid functioning, but that assertion is based on a shoddy study in which rats are dosed with excessive amounts of the chemical that exceed normal human exposure. And the proposed efficacy testing is over the top – as the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Angela Logomasini notes, a 2005 study “showed that the anti-microbial hand washing agents were significantly more effective in reducing bacteria than the alcohol-based handrubs and waterless handwipes.” Hence the coming increase in food-borne illness and rising health care costs cited above.