One issue is keeping our hands and bodies clean. Dr. Stuart Levy of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston is a critic of new antibacterial soaps and cleansers. The argument is simple enough. Levy said household standbys such as chlorine bleach, hydrogen peroxide and alcohol are antibacterial cleaners, but once you use them, they vanish. The newer synthetic products leave a residue to kill bacteria for an extended period, not allowing the good bacteria to reestablish themselves.
Good bacteria are vital for the intestinal tract, fighting off germs.
They help our intestinal tract mature, and they help our immune system mature. Levy explained that antibacterial soaps have no proven benefit over mild soap and water. He recommends using stronger hand cleansers only when someone in the household is seriously ill or has lowered immunity. The paper towel gets organisms off the hand even if you don't kill them. Other findings show that using enough soap is a key factor, though no one has agreed on how much soap is enough, just that each of us tends to use the same amount of soap as habit.