The other day, I noticed that Beyond Pesticides, a national environmental advocacy group has launched a campaign against triclosan, an anti-microbial often found in hand soap, dish soap and other household objects.
In the interest of full disclosure, I used to represent the pesticide and fertilizer manufacturers, distributors and formulators on their non-agricultural issues. I continue to use pesticides in and around my home. I believe that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state regulators that determine if pesticides are safe, effective and right for their state, do a very good of job making sure that the products available for sale do the job they are designed for with minimal risk to human health and the environment.
As the lead state and local advocate for the pesticide industry, you can imagine I have been on the opposite side of many issues advocated by Beyond Pesticides. However, as my focus was more on outdoor pesticides, I don’t have a great deal of knowledge about triclosan. So I decided to check it out.
I started with state legislation, to see if triclosan bans were gaining any traction in the states. At first glance, I found that there were nineteen bills this session introduced in states, so it looked like maybe there it was. However, while there have been nineteen bills introduced this session, only three states have been active on the issue. SIXTEEN of the bills were introduced came from one state, Minnesota.
How does this compare to other pesticide issues I have dealt with? Neonicotinoids, an insecticide class often mentioned as a possible cause for colony collapse disorder, is the focus of thirteen state bills (three of those were Minnesota) and two federal bills. Atrazine, another widely-used and often-targeted herbicide, was mentioned in five bills (four of those are New York State). There are 98 bills that discuss integrated pest management (IPM), a recognized best practice for pesticide applications.
Just be careful, because a legislative trend banning a chemical, does not mean there is valid scientific evidence supporting a ban. Very few state legislators have the science background to make these decisions, and often vocal constituents sway votes more than the state regulators hired to make these evaluations and decisions.
The next thing I did was a quick Google search to see what information I could find that was favorable or unfavorable for triclosan.
There is a very active effort among environmental bloggers to ban triclosan. The blog posts range from the those that seem to provide valid arguments and analysis, such as The Frugal Nurse blog to those that used flawed science, lack a real connection to the issue, or simply don’t make any sense, such as the Medical Drug Effects blog. Unfortunately for the amateur researchers out there, there are many more sites like Medical Drug Effects than the Frugal Nurse, that seem to want to throw some unrelated data and vague statements out there to scare people.
Manufacturer sites, such as Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson talk about the use, extensive testing and study, and relative safety of the product. However, some manufacturers, including both Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson (see links), will be eliminating triclosan from all of its products.
One thing that did surprise me was that the Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA), the trade association that would be most likely involved with defending this product, was quiet on this issue. To be fair, much of their advocacy information is reserved for their members, and I did not look deeply into any state advocacy work. While I did expect to find some information about triclosan on the CSPA website, I do not think that the lack of information is any indication that the product is unsafe or that they aren’t doing a great job representing their members. [Author’s update – The American Cleaning Institute (and not CSPA) is the organization responsible for advocating on behalf of making decisions re: triclosan based on sound scientific research. Please read more information on the American Cleaning Institute’s website — mob]
So, is triclosan safe and effective or unnecessary risk? In the end, you have to decide what is right for yourself. Just do your homework when making your decision about whether or not to use triclosan or any other product.
If you would like to do your own research into bills on this, or any other, topic, simply register for your free account to start browsing and searching our database. If you have more extensive needs please click here to contract us for more information about our bill tracking and sharing tools to assist your government relations or advocacy organization.
About BillTrack50 – BillTrack50 offers free tools for citizens to easily research legislators and bills across all 50 states and Congress. BillTrack50 also offers professional tools to help organizations with ongoing legislative and regulatory tracking, as well as easy ways to share information both internally and with the public.