Baby Got Bacteria

So I subscribe to this Co-Op America Newsletter, which offers tips and tricks for "shopping green." Not that I ever really do, given the fact that I'm basically cheap and lazy, but I at least like the idea of shopping green. (I also can't quite get into the "organic food" craze, preferring as I do inorganic foods, like Twinkies, given that my biological forebears evolved on another planet and were thus not carbon-based.)

Anyway, the current issue has a column on antibacterial soaps. It contains the passage:

In 1998, Tufts University reseracher Stuart Levy published a study in Nature, which found that frequent use of antibacterial soap caused genetic changes in bacteria, to the point where Levy speculated that these genetic changes couold create antibiotic-resistant "supergerms" and cause a public health crisis.
...
However, in October 2005, reserachers from Tufts (including Stuart Levy), Columbia University, and the University of Michigan did a follow-up study and found that household use of triclosan-based antibacterial hygiene products for one year did not result in participants carrying antibiotic-resistant bacteria on their hands.

Let's be clear about what we're talking about. The phrase "genetic changes in bacteria" is a little misleading, as it implies that the chemicals go into the bacterium's genome and cause mutations (like a Godzilla movie or something). What happens is that those bacteria that happen to have a genetic immunity to antibacterial products survive and replicate while those that do not, naturally, die. So the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria increases. This is not science-fiction; it's basic Darwinism in action, and it's been well-documented that the overuse of pesticides in past decades has in fact led to the emergence of pests that are resistant to them, and for basically the same reason.

Now, this is not to say that it's a foregone conclusion that such organisms will develop, or that bacteria that are resistant to Dial handsoap will kill off humanity, but it's not a completely outlandish notion.

Personally, I try to avoid antibacterial products, simply because I'm not Howard Hughes (although, rent me Ice Station Zebra and we'll see what happens...) and have more important things to be afraid of--like silver gleaming death machines that shoot across the sky and purportedly land in Atlanta.