New Research Rouses More Debate on Safety of Triclosan

24 Aug, 2012

by Jessica Rubino, via New Hope 360

Hello, tri­closan, we meet again.

Despite stud­ies link­ing the com­mon antibac­te­r­ial chem­i­cal to sex hor­mone and fetal devel­op­ment dis­rup­tion, tri­closan con­tin­ues to pop up in many every­day per­sonal care prod­ucts, par­tic­u­larly hand san­i­tiz­ers and liq­uid soaps. New research once again puts this ingre­di­ent in the lime­light, report­ing that it also could have neg­a­tive effects on mus­cle function.

The research from the University of California and the University of Colorado linked tri­closan to sig­nif­i­cantly impaired mus­cle func­tion, find­ing that it had a “dra­matic” effect on the heart, accord­ing to the researchers. The most star­tling find­ing was that mice exposed to the chem­i­cal had a 25 per­cent reduc­tion in heart func­tion within 20 min­utes of tri­closan exposure.

The great tri­closan debate continues

It’s no sur­prise, really, that the American Cleaning Institute (ACI)—which works with var­i­ous con­ven­tional man­u­fac­tur­ers of antibac­te­r­ial clean­ing products—fought back against the research, argu­ing that the dosage used was too high for the test sub­jects (mice and fish) to offer an accu­rate snap­shot of the chemical’s poten­tial effects on the body. Meanwhile, the sci­en­tists who con­ducted the study say that the dosages were the same as those found in per­sonal care products.

The debate will continue—and man­u­fac­tur­ers will con­tinue to use this ingre­di­ent in the absence of tighter reg­u­la­tions. But this seems to be some of the more com­pelling tri­closan research we’ve seen, which will hope­fully urge more com­pa­nies to pay atten­tion to the poten­tial risks.

Click here to read the rest of this arti­cle at New Hope 360.

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