What is hand soap?
Hand soap is a cleansing agent used for washing hands. It typically comes in liquid or solid bar form and is formulated to help remove dirt, grease, and microbes from the skin when combined with water and friction from rubbing the hands together.
When did people start washing their hands with soap?
In the 1840s Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician, discovered that fewer women died after childbirth if doctors washed their hands beforehand. His colleagues did not accept that, he received criticism and was eventually sentenced to death. It took more than a hundred years until the 1980s when the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention issued the world´s first nationally endorsed hand hygiene guidelines. This means that it is not too far in the past when people started taking washing hands seriously.
Some key things about hand soap:
Ingredients: Hand soaps contain surfactants (cleansing agents) as well as other ingredients like emollients, fragrances, preservatives, etc. Antibacterial hand soaps may contain additional antimicrobial agents.
Purpose: The main purpose is to clean hands and remove contaminants that may carry germs and bacteria. Regular handwashing with soap is important for personal hygiene and preventing spread of illnesses.
Forms: Liquid hand soaps are very common and dispense as a gel or foaming solution. Bar soaps are solid cakes that get lathered up with water. Foam hand soaps are also available.
Use: A small amount is applied to wet hands, lathered by rubbing together, then rinsed completely with water to wash away dirt and germs.
Placement: Hand soaps are commonly found next to sinks in bathrooms, kitchens, and other places where handwashing is required or recommended.
Can you use hand soap to wash dishes?
The short answer is: yes. Hand soap gets rid of food particles in an emergency when you've run out of dish soap.
But should you? There are a few things to consider.
First, hand soap has not been designed to remove food residue and grease from dishes.
It has a different pH level than dish soap, so it doesn't work as well as dish soap does.
And some hand soaps are really (really) hard to rinse off of your dishes, and will leave behind a slimy, fragrant residue.
But an even more important question is: what's in your hand soap?
Think about it: what's in your soap will it end up on your dishes and mix in with your food.
If you use conventional hand soap, chances are it contains a number of toxins. ...Toxins like these:
1. Sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate
These ingredients are commonly referred to as "SLS" and can be found in most products that foam.
According to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database, SLS leads to a number of health issues.
It can cause endocrine disruption, ecotoxicity, biochemical or cellular changes, skin irritation, eye irritation, developmental toxicity, reproductive toxicity, organ toxicity, neurotoxicity, and cancer. Not exactly what you want communing with your food, right?
2. Parabens
Typical parabens found in hand soap are methylparaben, butylparaben, and propylparaben.
Parabens pose a danger to your health because of their hormone-disrupting effects. Parabens mimic the female hormone estrogen, which encourages the growth of breast tumors.
3. Ureas
Ureas are concerning because they cause contact dermatitis, heart irregularities, joint pain, and they weaken your immune system.
Names to look out for on ingredient labels are Imidazolidinyl, Diazolidinyl Urea, DMDM hydantoin, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate and others.
4. Colors
This is an ingredient that captures thousands of chemicals manufacturers don't have to disclose.
If your soap includes "colors," harmful ingredients may be hidden inside this chemical mix.
