i always new that dial crap was nasty

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Common Soap Antiseptic Found in U.S. Crop Fields

 

May 03, 2006 — By Maggie Fox, Reuters

WASHINGTON — A chemical widely used to make soap " antiseptic " survives sewage

treatment and is being spread onto farmland and released into water, with

unknown effects, researchers reported Tuesday.

 

They said the compound, called triclocarban, is not broken down by conventional

sewage treatment. Researchers estimated that more than 70 percent of the

triclocarban used by consumers is released to the environment when treated

sludge is put on land used, in part, for food production.

 

There it has the potential to accumulate in crops, but researchers stressed that

they have not found this.

 

" There are two potential threats from this chemical. One is the chemical threat

and the other is the microbiological threat, " said Rolf Halden of Johns Hopkins

University in Baltimore, who led the study.

 

" When it degrades, it forms an animal carcinogen, " Halden said in a telephone

interview.

 

When any antimicrobial is widely used or released, organisms have the potential

to evolve resistance to its effects, Halden said.

 

Writing in the June issue of Environmental Science & Technology, Halden said his

studies suggest triclocarban, or TCC, contaminates 60 percent of the U.S. water

supply.

 

" There is very little data out on the the role of triclocarbon, " he said. " The

irony is that we have used it for a half century and we are only beginning to

learn what happens to this chemical after we are done with it. "

 

TCC and a related compound, triclosan, are widely used in soaps and detergents.

 

" Ironically, the FDA determined that there is no measurable benefit to the

average consumer from using these products. Everyone agrees that washing your

hands is good, but there is little difference between using soap and using

antimicrobial soap, " Halden said.

 

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel made that determination in

October. The FDA has been sorting through the issue since 1972.

 

Halden said it was not certain that having TCC in water and sewage sludge was

harmful.

 

" But it tells us how shortsighted we are in producing these chemicals, first

without demonstrated need, and we have to ask why we are releasing these

chemicals at high volume if they do no good and only cause problems down the

road. "

 

Halden said his team found in 2004 that TCC contaminated all the streams in the

greater Baltimore area.

 

Triclosan and TCC are biocides, and break up bacteria and viruses. In 1998, Dr.

Stuart Levy of Tufts University in Boston found that E. coli bacteria can

develop resistance to triclosan.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

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