Consumer decisions we make as individuals don't change much, but a lot of individuals acting together become something more, and the spread of information is the first step to getting there. Two simple decisions you make when shopping for your bathroom—reaching for another product on the same shelf, not even changing stores, let alone mixing your own toiletries—can yield real effects.

First, your antibacterial soap. Did you know that, according to the FDA, there's no evidence antibacterial soap is better at cleaning and preventing infection than plain old-fashioned soap? Not only that, but the FDA is telling makers of antibacterial soaps that they need to prove their products are safe, a move that was:



... applauded by public health experts, who for years have urged the agency to regulate antimicrobial chemicals, warning that they risk scrambling hormones in children and promoting drug-resistant infections, among other things.

It's not like you can't buy antibacterial soap, even if it will limit your choices from two dozen to one dozen. And really, if there's no provable benefit to it, why would you want to risk scrambling your kid's hormones and increasing the likelihood of drug-resistant flesh-eating bacteria, drug-resistant pneumonia, drug-resistant food poisoning, and more along those lines?

Please read below the fold for another change you can make to help the environment.