Which Soap is Best?

How many times a day would you say you washed your hands? Do you use regular soap or anti-bacterial soap? Which do you think is better? Before reading an Article on ABCNews.com, I would have said that anti-bacterial soap is probably better. After all, one of the main reasons people wash their hands is to destroy bacteria; hopefully preventing illness in the process.

But according to a new study by the Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics and the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee, instead of preventing illnesses, the use of anti-bacterial soaps may be creating future strands of bacteria resistant to antibacterial remedies. By using this anti-bacterial soap you may be enabling the evolution of bacteria; making them less susceptible to human control.

So, what does this information do to the market for soap and the market for anti-bacterial soap? If consumers take these studies seriously, they will most likely switch from anti-bacterial soaps to regular soaps. The demand for anti-bacterial soaps will diminish (shift left) and the price will decrease. The opposite would happen in the market for regular soap. The demand would increase (shift right); causing the price to increase.

I do believe that society may have overdone it with cleaning by killing all bacteria. And I do believe that bacteria have the capability to evolve and cause problems for the human population. But what I don’t know is whether or not consumers will be willing to change their mindset that all bacteria is bad based on one study; especially since we really don’t know how valid this study is. Will the FDA get involved? What impact would it have if the FDA agreed/disagreed with this study? Would it change your opinions/mindset?