Tag Archives: FDA

Hand Hygiene, Infection prevention

FDA Ban on Antibacterial Soap?

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You may have heard recently that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a ban on certain ingredients found in antibacterial soaps and washes. What exactly does this mean?

 

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Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research explained, “Consumers may think antibacterial washes are more effective at preventing the spread of germs, but we have no scientific evidence that they are any better than plain soap and water.”

 

Essentially, by using products labeled as antibacterial, many consumers think they’re receiving health benefits that simply aren’t there. In fact, according to a paper published in 2007, regularly using antibacterial soaps may be linked, over time, to the growth of a dangerous drug-resistant bacteria. Researchers concluded, “Further studies of this issue are encouraged.”

 

One co-author of the paper noted, “…the public still has the option of using hand sanitizers, which work faster and better than the current consumer ‘antibacterial’ soaps….”

 

Back in 2013, the FDA proposed a rule requiring manufacturers of antibacterial hand soaps and body washes to prove their products were more effective than plain soap and water. No data establishing safety and effectiveness of these products was provided.

 

Companies affected have almost a year to either remove the ingredients from their products (triclosan and triclocarban are the most commonly used chemicals) or no longer market their products before the final rule goes into effect September 6, 2017.

 

In the meantime, you can rest easy knowing that your hand sanitizer and soap don’t need to be labeled as ‘antibacterial’ in order to be effective. Just make sure you’re still washing your hands!

 

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/02/health/fda-bans-antibacterial-soap/index.html

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-21337.pdf


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Antibiotics in our food, Food-borne illness

Antibiotics in the foods we eat: Why the drugs are losing their power

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The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have called for an end to the nontherapeutic use of drugs in animals that are used to treat human disease. Why? The short answer is giving healthy livestock these drugs breeds superbugs that can infect people.

Here’s a great explanation from the Union of Concerned Scientists: “Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics through overexposure to them. Hardy strains of the bacteria survive the exposure and pass on that resistance trait to successive generations. And they also pass the trait across to other bacteria that are unrelated, including some that cause human disease. Eventually the antibiotic wipes out all the vulnerable bacteria, and only resistant bacteria remain. Then the drug is no longer effective.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started testing retail meat and poultry for antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 1996. It was not until 2008, however, that Congress required companies to report the quantity of antibiotics they sold for use in agriculture to the FDA. Why is that so important? According to a report from the New York Times, “In 2011, drugmakers sold nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics for livestock — the largest amount yet recorded and about 80 percent of all reported antibiotic sales that year. The rest was for human health care.”

That’s right, 80 percent of antibiotics are being used for livestock! That means the meat and poultry we humans eat give resistant bacteria a direct route to us — right through the grocery store and into our kitchens. But combating resistance requires monitoring both the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our food, as well as the use of antibiotics on livestock.

In March of this year, McDonald’s announced a plan to require chicken suppliers to stop using antibiotics important to human medicine within two years. Chicken supplier Tyson Inc. reported they’ll also stop giving chickens the same antibiotics used by humans; Tyson noted it has reduced the use of antibiotics effective in humans by more than 84 percent since 2011. The National Chicken Council also released a statement that says chicken producers have been working to phase out the use of antibiotics important in human medicine to promote growth in animals.

Restaurant chains Chipotle and Panera already say they serve chicken raised without antibiotics, but the announcement by McDonald’s is notable because of its size. McDonald’s has more than than 35,000 locations on Earth, and the U.S. has the highest concentration of them — about one for every 20,000 residents according to The Guardian’s Datablog. Compare that to Chipotle’s nearly 1,800 U.S. locations and Panera’s almost 1,900 U.S. locations.

There is more than enough scientific evidence to justify curbing the rampant use of antibiotics for livestock, yet the food and drug industries are fighting proposed legislation to reduce these practices. What do you think about antibiotic use in agriculture and livestock? Should they all move to using drugs that are not considered medically important for humans? Share your insights now in the comments section.