Medicine: Soapless Soap?

Soap is one of the marks of civilization, but it is still a pretty primitive agent for cleansing the human skin. So says a British dermatologist, who claims that most soaps today get people clean by removing from their skins the very things that nature put there to guard against irritation and infection. Writing in the New Scientist, Dr. F. Ray Bettley accuses soaps made the traditional way, from caustic alkalies and fats, of not only removing grease and dirt but of penetrating the skin’s protective layers and leaching out the skin’s natural protective emulsion, frequently causing chapping or a more severe inflammation. Also, soaps are usually alkaline and therefore reduce the acidity on which the skin relies to help kill bacteria.

Dr. Bettley admits that the average person’s casual washing is not likely to cause him trouble, but feels that housewives, cleaning women, dishwashers and others constantly exposed to soap are especially vulnerable to soap-caused skin trouble. He thinks that the scientists daily performing molecular magic should get busy devising something better than soap. To be generally accepted by the public, it would have to be both inexpensive and solid, like a soap bar—requirements that the special liquid cleansers now on the market fail to meet. Dr. Bettley challenges modern chemical science to produce such a cleanser.