hi.
been meaning to post this one for a while. how does triclosan work? what about this stuff makes it easier to impregnate household items with?
any chance we may cause entire groups of bacteria to become triclosan-resistant, and, if so, is that a bad thing?
thanks,
jb
What I want to know is, will my household items breed true if I impregnate them? If they will, I’m opening an appliance store.
jm
[sub]sorry[/sub]
Triclosan works by inhibiting bacterial fatty-acid synthesis, but I don’t know how they impregnate plastic with it.
Using triclosan does select for resistant strains pretty much the same way that using antibiotics does, and some of those strains have cross-resistance to some antibiotics (in some cases because some antibiotics target the same enzyme and in other cases because some mechanisms of resistance work on a wide variety of toxins besides triclosan). Here’s an article about it from the CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no3_supp/levy.htm
Bad thing. They say that not only does putting triclosan everywhere tend to increase antibiotic resistance in general, but that people whose immune systems mature in an environment with too few bacteria might be prone to allergies later in life.
no. impregnating household items with Triclosan is a lot like breeding a mare with a jackass. [rimshot]what you get will probably be sterile[/rimshot]