There are loads of adverts on TV at the moment for antibacterial products; cleansers, soaps, bleaches, wipes. Pretty much anything these days seems to be antibacterial. The annoying thing is that people believe that they are a health benefit, rather than the danger to health that they really are.
There are people who have to live in a buble because they have absolutely no immune system. Even the slightest bacteria that would be harmless and unnoticed by the rest of us would kill them. They have to live in a bacteria free environment.
It seems, at first, that living in a bacteria free environment should be a good idea for everybody. And, in theory, you'd be right. Unfortunately, life isn't theory. Life is, well, real life.
As a baby, you have a very weak immune system. You only have what you have inherited genetically and what you have acquired from your mother in the womb. This is why we sterilise babies' bottles. The bacteria that could grow on the bottle, while harmless to adults, could kill your baby or make them seriously ill. This is why before sterilisation, and today in the third world, babies die all the time.
But you don't keep sterilising everything as they grow up. At some point, their immune system has to fend for itself, otherwise you might as well just stick them in a bubble too.
That's why, as babies develop and they start exploring the world around them, they start putting everything in their mouths. They need start consuming harmless bacteria so that their immune system can develop. Without the practise that our immune system gets from harmless bacteria, more potent bacteria can cause more serious damage.
Human babies have developed this habit of putting everything in their mouth over millions of years of evolution in order to ensure the survival of the human race. Our immune systems depend on the intake of harmless bacteria in order to "practise". Most of the bacteria around us isn't just harmless, it's pretty much essential. By trying to eliminate this bacteria, you are doing harm to your health.
The rise in the number of people with allergies at the same time as the proliferation of antibacterial products is no coincidence. By reducing the amount of harmless bacteria that our bodies can learn from, our immune systems can develop inappropriate responses to harmless substances, that in some cases can be fatal.
When was the last time you heard of someone that died because they wiped down their kitchen worktop with a wet cloth instead of an antibacterial cloth? Never. And yet, every year, hundreds of people die from anaphylactic shock from an allergy to harmless substances.
Allergies are just an inappropriate immune response to a harmless substance. Your immune system is vital for your survival. Yes, you may develop an allergy anyway, but why encourage it by preventing the correct development of your immune system. You shouldn't be using antibacterial products unless medically advised to do so. In other words, for babies bottles and for people who live in bubbles. Your life can quite literally depend on it.
The funniest thing about the adverts for antibacterial products is that a lot of them provide the information required to prove that they are pointless. They say things like "There are more bacteria on your kitchen worktop than in your toilet". Now this is very probably true, which is why their product is pointless. You're don't prepare food in the toilet, you prepare it in the kitchen. But they've just said it's safer to do it in your toilet. Regardless of that logic, you're still never going to give it a try, are you. No matter how much you disinfect the toilet.
People have always prepared food in their kitchens, and it doesn't kill anyone. So it's harmless. They've just told you that their product is pointless in the kitchen, and by implication, it's pointless in the toilet too, where you might have otherwised used it anyway.
Another thing that I find funny is that it tends to be exactly the same people who buy these antibacterial products for their kitchen, that also leave the toilet lid up when they flush the toilet. This puts a hyperfine spray of fecal bacteria into the air in the bathroom, which nicely covers their toothbrush.
There's nothing wrong with this, it's happened for years and it helps to build your immune system. Nobody has ever died from brushing their teeth :-)
But if you're going to do that, even with Domestos' flawed logic, why use antibacterial products anywhere else? Use some bloody common sense...
