Antibacterial Products: Overused or Beneficial?

We all want to be clean and safe, and we all want our children to stay healthy, so when all the myriad antibacterial products started showing up on the grocery store shelves, most people were ecstatic. After all, bacteria and viruses are everywhere. I think most people are aware of how filthy shopping cart handles are and how disgusting public restrooms can be. In fact, almost any surface can harbor bacteria, which makes the antibacterial soaps, detergents and sanitizers all the more appealing. However, there is a down side to all of this cleanliness.

Hand sanitizers and antibacterial soaps have been out for quite a few years now, which has given some bacteria time to adapt and become resistant. This, of course, is not a good thing. Well, for the bacteria it is, but not for us. When we continuously and routinely spray antibacterial solutions around our homes and businesses, the bacteria that are present can get so used to the solutions that they mutate slightly so that the chemicals no longer kill them. This sort of thing happens a lot now with antibiotic medicine as well. Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with rubbing shopping carts with cleaner or cleaning your kitchen, but care should be taken that it's not overdone.