how sanitizer effects on environment
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Explanation:
Hand sanitizers have become all but ubiquitous in the West. In the United States it's a $200-million a year industry. While these cleansers can be useful, notably in clinical environments, they are far from being a benign frippery: they bear not only an environmental cost, but can bear a medical cost too.
A study published in Plos One in October showed that because hand sanitizers increase the permeability of the skin, using them and then handling thermal paper (the kind commonly put out by credit card terminals, cash registers, taxi drivers) causes the body to absorb bisphenol A, a hormone-disrupting chemical that's incredibly common. This is all the more pertinent if you sanitize, handle thermal paper and then eat with your hands.
The paper dwelled on the BPA, which has been found in 95% of American adults' urine. Hand sanitizers aren't that ubiquitous yet, but unthinking use of them is arguably one of the ills of the consumption-crazy west.
The purpose of sanitizers is to, well, sanitize your hands in the absence of soap and water. Some people, possibly forgetting what "soap" does, even use them after washing their hands.
Hand sanitizers contain an active ingredient, usually alcohol, that kills some if not all bacteria. The mania for sanitizing has become so prevalent that in Israel at least, some parents are shocked – shocked! when others don't carry it about with them to keep the kids squeaky "clean". Never mind that they may smoke in the living room or let the dog sleep in the bed: if the kid touches a jungle gym, he gets sprayed.
Some schools in Israel even require children to bring a bottle of the stuff together with their pen and exercise books, despite new research done in New Zealand showing that the practice does not in fact reduce absenteeism in schools (where kids could alternative wash their hands). For many – women at least, as most men still don’t carry around pocketbooks – these sanitizers have become almost a status symbol ostensibly indicating that the carrier is clean while non-carriers are slobs.
As there is no water laving away the dirt, at most, the alcohol in the sanitizers kills some bacteria, and possibly reduces viral and fungal flora while about it. Cleaner, you are not; more sterile than before, you probably are. But is that necessarily a good thing?
Sure, in a hospital. Or if somebody sneezes on your hands, fine, go ahead and sanitize. It's also good for people out in the field – soldiers come to mind – who don't have access to soap and water. But in the playground or classroom? The Hygiene Hypothesis, first published by Dr. David Strachen in 1989, postulates that one reason for rising incidence of allergies and illness among western children is the effort to sterilize their environment.
Unchallenged immune systems remain stunted, says the hypothesis. Some even believe the immune challenge can result in serious illness later in life, including diabetes and nervous system impairment.
The Hygiene Hypothesis remains controversial (a paper in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology in 2013 by a team headed by Dr. Emmanuel Prokopakis of the University of Crete spells out the controversies). That said, a great many studies have found that children living on farms or even urban kids growing up with pets (hair! parasites! doo doo!) and in big families (ditto…) have been repeatedly shown to have less allergies than their pet-less peers.
Put simply, kids who grow up with dirt have more germs in their system, and seem better able to deal with them.
Prokopakis points out that there is no proven link between hand sanitizers and the Hygiene Hypothesis, let alone immune dysfunction, but confesses he finds the thought intriguing. "We may only assume, that the extensive use of hand sanitizers in western countries is associated with the increase of allergies (among other reasons), based on the hygiene hypothesis," he elaborates by email to Haaretz.
A twist on this theory was proposed in 2003, by the scientist Graham Rook, who broached the "old friends" theory. Man evolved with certain bacteria on his skin, in his mouth and in his guts and in fact. Far from being agents of disease, these "germs" are crucial to our health, helping us digest among other things, and fighting with non-benign bugs. In 1998 a group of scientists even published evidence associating childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia – a growing problem in the west but not in the developing nations - with excessive hygiene conditions.
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