I just watched a video about "soaps and hand washing." The claim was that it takes 20 seconds for soap-based hand washing to disassemble viruses. The problem with the video is that it fails to distinguish between soap and detergent.

The term "soap" may have become corrupted from its original meaning of sodium salts of fatty acids, or a mixture of sodium salts of fatty acids and glycerol. The latter is what you get when you mix fat with lye. So the soap I use is Dr. Bronner's liquid soap, which is made the traditional way: fat (vegetable oil) and lye. But while that may be better for skin health, skin ecology and the environment, it is NOT better for disassembling viruses.

Detergents are an order of magnitude more efficient at disassembling viruses than traditional soaps. So what do you do? Look at your soap product label. See if its formula is detergent based. If so, the 20-second rule is likely good. But just keep in mind that excessive hand washing can strip the lipids from your skin and damage your skin health.

For example, "Seventh Generation" has a soap line made from "natural products". The items on their label that look like detergents are:

* sodium lauryl sulfate
* lauramine oxide
* decyl glucoside

All three are detergents, and none of the three are natural. They are described as "natural" by the spin-doctors of sales literature because they do break down into natural products, and are sourced from natural products.

Steven Fowkes, Will Estes