Below is text of a letter supporting California Assembly Bill 916, the Safer Soap Act, to ban the sale of consumer hand soaps and body washes contain benzalkonium chloride, benzethonium chloride, or chloroxylenol. To see a version that includes footnotes, click here. If you'd like to sign your name, please submit your name, job title, and affiliation in the form below.
Dear Chair Bonta and Vice Chair Chen,
We are environmental and public health scientists who study chemicals of concern. We are writing to report that the growing body of independent peer-reviewed research on these chemicals supports Assembly Bill 916, the Safer Soap Act.
Specifically, we agree that the scientific evidence suggests:
Benzalkonium chloride, benzethonium chloride, and chloroxylenol can enter our bodies and waterways, and are linked to respiratory, reproductive, and/or neurological harms.
These chemicals can damage our skin and gut microbiomes.
These chemicals can induce antimicrobial resistance, both to the chemicals themselves as well as to critical antibiotics.,
Since the CDC, FDA, and non-industry-funded studies find that soaps with these chemicals have no meaningful benefit for consumers over plain soap, it would be in the best interest of public health and consistent with the antimicrobial resistance stewardship efforts to remove them from use in consumer soaps and body washes.
Respectfully,
