Germaphobes rarely leave the house without their bottle of hand sanitizer in tow—and it’s easy to see why: Virtually everything we touch on a daily basis is teeming with bacteria. In fact, one 2017 study published in the journal Germs assessed 27 cell phones and found a median of 17,000 bacterial gene copies per phone. And while hand sanitizer may seem like an effective on-the-go solution for ridding yourself of germs, using it too frequently can do more harm than good. Actually, it’s because hand sanitizer is so effective at killing bacteria that it’s not ideal for everyday use.
Triclosan, or TCS, is the active ingredient in some hand sanitizers. And while this ingredient does effectively strip away a myriad of microbes, one 2018 study published in the journal Environment International found that it’s just as successful at spurring the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Just 30 days of exposure to 0.2mg/L TCS can cause multi-drug resistance to E. coli.
“The triclosan found in personal care products that we use daily is accelerating the spread of antibiotic resistance,” study author Jianhua Guo explained in a press release.
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