to think we need to knock the bacteria bothering on the head?

[OtraCosaMariposa]

So unless you've been living under a rock we all know that single use plastics are bad, too much air travel is bad and that we're killing the planet with "stuff".

Just as important is the fact that bacteria are becoming resistant and that we haven't the new antibiotics to fight them. I know a lot of this si down to misuse of antibiotics, people not finishing the course or keeping old medication and popping it when they feel off colour. But I also think a lot of it is down to the sheer range of "anti-bacterial" products on sale.

The latest advert which really gave me the rage was for an anti-bacterial carpet cleaner, think it was Vax, which droned on about did you know how much BACTERIA there is in your carpet accompanied by pictures of children playing on the floor. Just like the "ewww, bacteria on your washing!!" adverts.

Do we really need to nuke all bacteria out of existence? Or do we collectively not need to chill out a bit, stop the paranoia about germs/bacteria and go back to basic cleaning with soap and water??

Anti-bac is banned in this house.

That clothes never need dettol

I presume he's never had to wash four lots of stinking teenage sports kit it works a treat.

It's also worth noting that plenty of bacteria have resistance to the ingredients used in everyday soap. Toothpaste too.

It is very difficult to find handwash that isn't anti-bacterial

Given ordinary soap bars are antibacterial I suspect the word ‘anti-bacterial’ is marketing

Yanbu it’s hard to find a bog standard kitchen spray that isn’t anti bac or bleach tho so at the moment ours is. When it runs out I will look at the Method ones mentioned. I hate the hand gels too. People are so squeamish. My DD circumvents any attempts to be clean anyway-she had the business end of the litter picker in her mouth yesterday

I'm mostly in your camp I think. Bleach gives me horrible memories of being a kid (mum was a bit of a clean freak) and I feel it on my chest immediately. Husband buys it when he has v occasional bursts of giving a shit and I have to restrain myself from bonking him on the head. I get contact dermatitis from being lazy about using marigolds and when it happens I have to stop washing hands and cut showers right back. Interestingly during those times I end up with fungal infections in the skin, it's like the reduction in normal bacteria lets other nasties in. There's a podcast with Neil DeGrasse Tyson where he shakes hands with someone and they track bacteria transfer - we have dominant friendly bugs which overpower others' non native ones quite quickly. It's an interesting topic.

There are times I use antibac stuff, but they are related to cleaning the snake out, or dog poo accidents. Basically when it's needed.

I remember as a child being given a bath in Dettol when i was particularly manky after a day playing in the garden. Goodness knows what that was about. I remember being fascinated that it was brown in the bottle and went white when poured into water.

Don't think I've ever bought a bottle of Dettol as an adult.

I use bleach occasionally for getting the mould out of washing machine soap drawer and occasional toilet clean. It lasts for years in our house!

I'm somewhere in the middle.

I do use some anti bac products when cleaning up if the cats have had an accident in the house (one of them was sick this morning so sprayed some dettol after cleaning it up).

Otherwise I tend to use environmentally friendly stuff, mainly Koh and Method. We've got quite a few bottles of anti bacterial hand soap as DP accidentally bulk bought it ages ago - I think it was Amazon. He wanted 5 bottles but didn't realise that they came in packs of 10 so we ended up with 50 bl**dy bottles of the stuff. How he didn't spot he was buying the most expensive hand wash on the planet beats me!!

The main problem with antibiotics I think stems not from human medicinal consumption but from their use in the food chain. A really scary side product of that is that some rivers are starting to show dangerously high levels of antibitocs as they absorb animal and human waste and this of course leaks back into the environment and then the food system as plants pick them up There are lots of articles about this but this is a good one to start with

My somber prediction is that unless we take drastic action at some point, there will be an anti biotic resistant plague which will wipe out a good proportion of the population.

That said new types of antibiotics are being discovered. One was discovered in Irish peat at the end of 2018 which may potentially be used against super bugs. This is another good reason not to clean too much there could well be antibiotics we are unaware of in the dirt in our homes not that I'm looking for an excuse or anything

This sounds like a community science project for the benefit of mankind, can I join?

We are on a septic tank so bleach and antibac are banned here. I use Method (non antibac) for cleaning, along with bicarb and vinegar. Loo cleaner is Ecover so non-bleach based and septic tank friendly. Toiletries are Faith in Nature and we use soap rather than shower gel.

I wonder how people think humans survived for so long without antibac. Its ridiculous. There's a lot of essential good bacteria caught in the cross fire and we are only just beginning to understand how much we need them.

Well to be fair a lot of people also died of diseases that anti bac might have prevented.

The other benefit is that using soap for handwashing and washing up liquid for cleaning (or even more old school like lemon and bicarb) is a lot cheaper.

There are a lot of things I'd rather spend my money on than bleach and cleaning products.

When you think that we are designed to be covered in muck and be riddled with parasites, you can see why we get ill so much. The parasite and bacteria 'load' tunes our immune system and is designed to keep us healthy. When our immune system has nothing to do, it becomes weak and we get ill. I was brought up dirty by todays standards and I am rarely ill. Nothing anti bac here. Bacteria are necessary for our continued existance. People confuse them with pathogenic bacteria that make you ill and think all bacteria are bad.

I love my wipes

Even though they’re terrible for human health AND the environment?

The Heart wants what the Heart wants.

Yes I do get that ligresa. But it is overkill. Antibiotic resistance is apparently the biggest threat to mankind at the moment.

I love bleach for some things. You can't really claim its expensive. I've had a 50p bottle in my horses stable for over a year! I use a bit to scrub out his water trough as its the only thing that gets rid of green slime

I do think the anti-bac stuff is reducing our exposure to bacteria and our ability to just deal with it, and therefore making it more problematic when we eventually come across said bacteria.

I like a clean house, I have domestos spray for my bathroom, and kitchen, have toilet bleach, I hoover every day (but we do have 11 cats, its more about cat hair) but my children play outside, get muddy, they play in the horse menage opposite our house, they play down by the brook, pick up newts and frogs, bring home rocks and sticks, and I don't make a big deal about it, for what its worth yes my children get the odd cold here and there, but never anything more serious, well once, my son had some kind of bacteria infection but the reason it was more serious was because he was evidently allergic to whatever it was.

antibiotic resistance is the biggest threat to mankind yes that's because idiots have obsessively pristine homes and demand antibiotics for their kids everytime they have a cold.

But people do drink bleach.
I have seen it recommended on fb groups so googled it.

www.theguardian.com/science/2010/sep/15/miracle-mineral-solutions-mms-bleach?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Well if its recommended on FB pass me the Bleach!

ILoveAllRainbowsx decant from a bottle of shop brand bubble bath.

I put a drop of bleach in my horses water. They love it 🤣