David Cooper

Your research points the finger at perhaps something more ordinary.

What might that be?

It certainly is.

And I know I want to talk about household sprays and stuff contributing to it, but I heard the phrase antibiotic of last resort the other day.

And that kind of scared me, this idea that we have certain antibiotics that work and then they don't.

And then once they stop working, we're kind of screwed.

A simple cold could put us in the grave.

Now, how important is it to use antibacterial soap?

If I don't use one, am I putting myself at risk?

Or are people using these products because of advertising, because of information they're hearing not from the scientific community, because of big corporations putting them on the shelves?

And we think, great, it kills all the bacteria.

Do we need that stuff in our everyday life?

Or is regular old soap fine?

So what happens with these compounds?

I'm looking at one here and the chemical name is hard for me to read.

Benzaclonium chloride.

Imagine I spray my kitchen sink with that.

Fine, the bacteria in it sort of die.

But then the ones that don't, do they somehow get stronger over time?

Here's the scary part for me.