Toni,

Check out tea tree oil. It has been proven to kill MRSA, however hasn't been widely accepted into the mainstream due to the thinking that "chemically" based products work better.

My best friend's husband wound up with MRSA after a trip to the emergency room. She got it from him. He got rid of it quickly (the open area on the skin), she did not. Come to find out, he was using tea tree oil soap. She started using her own bar and voila, no more MRSA in two years.

Go to your fave search engine and type in MRSA and tea tree oil. You will be surprised at what you find.

Good luck,
Lisa

Dear Toni-

First, let me start by stating Seventh Generation does not have an antibacterial surface cleaner. However, due to high demand, we're constantly looking for naturally-derived disinfectants that would fit our human & environmental health profile.

Personally, I am a fan of good old fashioned soap. I've included two articles below that explain how the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) claim regular soap is just as effective as antibacterial soap.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions...

Peace/ Positivity/ Transparency/ 08!
-Reed
Seventh Generation R&D Team

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Plain Soap as Good as Antibacterial
Researchers Say Regular Soap Kills Germs as Well as Antibacterial Soap
By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Aug. 17, 2007 -- Antibacterial soaps are no more effective than plain soap and water for killing disease-causing germs, but the jury is still out on whether they promote antibiotic resistance in users, a newly published research analysis shows.

Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health reviewed 27 studies examining the safety and effectiveness of antibacterial products containing the active ingredient triclosan.

That includes most commercially available soaps, detergents and other products with the word 'antibacterial' on their labels, with the notable exception of alcohol-based hand gels.

Soaps containing triclosan at concentrations commonly seen in products sold to the public were found to be no better for killing bacteria and preventing infectious illness than soaps that did not contain triclosan.

"Antibacterial soaps do not provide a benefit above and beyond plain soaps for generally healthy people living in the community," researcher Allison Aiello, PhD, tells WebMD.

Read the rest of the article by clicking here.

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Good old fashioned soap and water the answer for "superbug"
Disease/Infection News
Published: Tuesday, 30-Aug-2005

Superbugs are bacteria that have mutated to become resistant to common antibiotics which are no longer any use against them.

The most famous of the "superbugs" is methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a common and usually harmless bacterium that is no longer knocked out by the antibiotic doctors would prefer to use.

Unlike MRSA, Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) it is a natural and normal part of the flora in the gut, and generally causes few health problems for the majority of the population.

It is however particularly tough and resilient.

When MRSA is detected through laboratory tests, doctors will use other antibiotics rather sparingly for fear that the bacteria will learn to evolve to resist those as well.

But if we blame over use of antibiotics for the rise of MRSA, it is also the culprit in the transformation of C. difficile from a harmless bug into a potential killer.

Healthy individuals will be able to keep C. difficile in check by the "good" bacteria in the gut, but because antibiotics do not discriminate, they kill off all the flora of the gut.

As C. difficile produces spores it is particularly good at survival.

The overuse of antibiotics for often minor infections, has caused some monster bugs to develop, while others, such as C.difficile, are given too much room to flourish and thereby cause harm.

Read the rest of the article by clicking here.

In order to make a claim of disinfecting or sanitizing properties, a surface cleaning product must be registered with the EPA. This process is very costly and time consuming, requiring extensive studies of germ killing ability and safety issues. We have not yet chosen to register any of our cleaners.

Hydrogen peroxide works extremely well for cleaning and sanitizing. Vinegar is also a natural disinfectant. Spraying them on a surface has been shown to kill germs.

Seventh Generation Kitchen Cleaner, Shower Cleaner, and Carpet Cleaner contain hydrogen peroxide, as does our Chlorine Free Bleach. Our products clean effectively and do not harm the environment.