Wellness

[noodleann]

Foam Soap May Not Measure Up to Liquid Soap

"Foam soaps may not be as effective as liquid soaps in eliminating bacteria that can lead to infection, the authors say.

“'In this pilot study, when standard hand washing techniques were used - washing wet hands with one pump of foam soap for six seconds and drying with a paper towel for four seconds – the foam soap was not as effective as the liquid soap in eliminating the hand bacterial load,' Dr. Ozlem Equils at UCLA’s School of Medicine and the Miora Educational Foundation in Encino, California, told Reuters Health by email.

"Equils and colleagues tested two common brands of foam and liquid detergent-based soaps that are available in grocery stores.

"When volunteers washed with foam soap, the average bacterial colony count on each hand went from 3.6 to 2.6, on a scale from 1 to 4 - a difference that could have been a coincidence. With liquid soap, the colony count went from 3.8 to 1.2 - a statistically significant drop, according to a report online now in the American Journal of Infection Control.

"Each group had five healthy test subjects. Two more sets of experiments were conducted with additional volunteers and yielded similar results.

"The research team suggests foam soap may be less effective than liquid soap because it comes out of the pump as a lather, whereas the liquid soap lather is built up in the process of hand washing. Also, the amount of soap in foam is markedly less in a single pump than is found in its liquid counterpart."

More in the article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/877692

from Reuters Health Information

[dimin]

Bummer!

[haddon9]

Oh well.... I still like foam soap and I also like handcrafted organic bar soap for wahsing my hands at home

[Mominohio]

This kind of seems like a no brainer, if one understands the concept of how soap is used to remove bacteria.

[Shogirl]

I hate foam soap and never have felt that it got my hands clean.  Where I work went to using foam soap last year in the bathrooms and I use 3-4 pumps because my hands just don't feel clean after using. 

[HappyDaze]

I've never liked foam soaps so I'm good, lol. I love my liquid hand soaps. 

[ID2]

I'm not a germaphobe so this is ok by me. I feel everyone has gone way overboard with this germs on this and that. Geez, I just wash my hands with whatever I have in my home and I'm done with it. I can't remember the last time I even had a cold!

[VaBelle35]

Unless you handle money or deal with the public, any soap will do.

I am a big fan of Dr. Bonners Castille liquid soap.  I wash my hands a lot and they are always so dry, but the essential oils in the Dr. Bonners soap helps a ton.

I buy the travel size for work so I don't have to use that really nasty cheap stuff they have there.

[VaBelle35]

I also read that it's really about how well you dry your hands.

Damp hands collect germs easier than dry hands.

[VaBelle35]

Drying matters

Drying is as important as washing, as any wet spots on your hands provide bugs with a place to breed. Also bacteria and viruses are more readily transferred to other surfaces when there's moisture around. There is some debate about the best way to dry your hands (really, there is). Commercial hand dryers work well, but research shows most people tend not to use dryers long enough to dry their hands properly. "Jet dryers" that shoot out blades of air at speeds of up to 640 km per hour work faster, but these have been found to spread the microbes more widely – up to two metres from the dryer. This has led some experts to suggest good old paper or cloth towels are really the best option, with cloth probably having the edge because it's easier on your hands. (You don't want rough cracked hands because those tiny crevices encourage microbes to linger and multiply). However, if you opt for a cloth towel, it should be the single use kind like the rotating ones found in some public facilities. At home, the advice is to give each family member their own towel and wash them all often.