Anti-bacterial soap and meat

[HoneyNBen]

Would you wash cookware that cooked meat/dairy in antibacterial soap or Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap?

[molly]

I don't remember when or where I got this information, but for what it's worth.... I think "anti-bacterial soap" is required to state on the label somewhere that the "anti-bacterial" part only refers to bacteria on your hands because they can't prove it kills bacteria on your dishes. Personally I don't use anti-bacterial soap on my hands at all, partly because I happen to have sensitive skin, but also because it's supposedly not healthy. Even doctors are encouraged to just scrub their hands for a minute with good old-fashioned bubbles to wash away the cooties b/c they say it's better to wash the bad stuff down the drain than to kill it with chemicals. Then there is the modern issue of supergerms, bacteria growing resistant to everything we invent to kill it, & I suspect that every anti-bacterial product out there probably does more harm than good in the long run.

Like I said, I don't remember any of my sources here, & it's a personal decision anyway, so I'm just sharing 'cause you asked. :) I think there's a book called Clean House, Clean Planet full of environmentally-friendly (& cheap) cleaning ideas. But if you can wash the ick off without the creepy chemicals, might as well. (After all, probably what bothers you is less the thought of the bacteria than the thought of the animal that was killed, & no detergent is going to make you feel better about that, right?)

[Elin]

In Sweden thre have been discussions on banning anti-bacterial soap (and other anti-bacterial products) because of it's negative effect on the environment. These anti-bacterial substances causes damages on water living creatures because the sewage treatment works can't remove them. They also seems to increase the occurrence of multi-resistant bacterias. I would never use a product with so called "anti-bacterial" effect. It gets just as clean with regular soap and that's a better alternative from a ecological point of view.