Well bleach and anti-bacteria detergents work the same way. They kill. They are murderous little molecules who don’t discriminate. They kill the good and the bad. When it comes to cleaning around your home, these concepts apply.
Clean is not the same as disinfect. If I remove the salad dressing from the plate with soap and water, the plate is clean. It does not taste or smell or feel like food is on it. Is it sterile? No. Do I need a sterile plate? Nope. I should wash my hands and my dishes with soap and warm water. I should keep the dogs and their slobber out of the kitchen when I am cooking. I should not sneeze on food. You know, the common sense stuff.
The danger comes in when we examine the long term health effects of these germ fighting cleaners. I choose to risk E coli over cancer after looking at the numbers.
For those of you who are concerned about E coli, I gathered some decent sources and copied over some of the info. When you go to battle against the germ-a-phobes, I want you to be prepared.
What is E Coli? Is it dangerous and bad for me? Answers can be found at
http://people.ku.edu/~jbrown/ecoli.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli
http://www.about-ecoli.com/
E. coli is the abbreviated name of the bacterium in the Family Enterobacteriaceae named Escherichia (Genus) coliE. coli. Although, in a newborn infant's intestines E. coli, along with lactobacilli and enterococci represent the most abundant bacterial flora. (Species). Approximately 0.1% of the total bacteria within an adult's intestines (on a Western diet) is represented by
The presence of E. coli and other kinds of bacteria within our intestines is necessary for us to develop and operate properly, and for us to remain healthy - E. coli, along with other species of bacteria, provide us with many necessary vitamins for example. The bacteria make the vitamins, and we gladly absorb them. We pretty much depend upon E. coli in our intestines for our source of Vitamin K and B-complex vitamins.