Too Clean

Triclosan, an antimicrobial agent, is showing up in breast milk and blood.

I recently began subscribing to the newsletter of NORMAN (the Network of Reference Laboratories for Monitoring Emerging Environmental Pollutants). NORMAN is a consortium of European environmental agencies, and the newsletter proves interesting because the Europeans are doing lots of cutting edge work on the interface of health and environment. The current edition of the newsletter reported on research documenting triclosan exposure in nursing mothers in Sweden. The researchers reported that "triclosan and/or its metabolites are omnipresent in both plasma [blood] and breast milk from nursing mothers and that concentrations were clearly and significantly higher in the exposed group (i.e., the group that uses products containing triclosan) than in the control group.”

This particular article caught my attention because just a few days ago, I stumbled across an interesting PBS video about the Hygiene Hypothesis. Basically, the Hypothesis says that people can be too clean. People (especially children) who aren't exposed to dirt and microscopic organisms are more likely to suffer from autoimmune problems such as asthma and allergies. Why? Because their immune systems aren't being exercised, and like the organs and muscles of the body, the immune system does need exercising.

So why, exactly, are we using this stuff in sufficient quantities that it is "omnipresent" in nursing mothers? That's a damn good question. If anybody from Colgate (they use it in toothpaste), or Revlon (in lip gloss), or the dozens of other manufacturers who put it in their products would like to pipe up, let the rest of us know: Why are you putting this stuff in so many products?