Soap, the product most everyone uses for hygiene, has a dirty side. Triclosan, a common antimicrobial in personal hygiene products, has caused liver fibrosis and cancer in mice with implications applicable to humans.

Triclosan is commonly found in soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and many other household items.

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine are reporting potentially serious consequences to long-term exposures to the chemical.

Robert Tukey, professor in the departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Pharmacology said triclosan's increasing detection in environmental samples and its broad use in consumer products may overcome its moderate benefit.

Tukey's team found triclosan disrupts liver integrity and compromises liver function in mouse models. The mice were exposed to triclosan for six months and became more susceptible to chemically induced liver tumors. Their tumors were also found to be larger and more frequent than in mice not exposed to the chemical.

Those six months in mice years roughly equates to 18 human years.

Further research suggests triclosan does its damage by interfering with the androstane receptor, a protein responsible for clearing away and detoxifying foreign chemicals in the body.

To compensate for this stress, liver cells multiply and turn fibrotic over time. Repeated exposure to triclosis and continuing liver fibrosis eventually leads to tumor formation.

Triclosan is a very common consumer antibacterial. The team's studiy suggested that 97 percent of breast milk samples from lactating women and urine from nearly 75 percent of people tested had triclosan traces in them.

The chemical is also very common in the environment as it is one of the seven most frequently detected compounds in streams across the United States.

"We could reduce most human and environmental exposures by eliminating uses of triclosan that are high volume, but of low benefit, such as inclusion in liquid hand soaps," Hammock said.

"Yet we could also for now retain uses shown to have health value -- as in toothpaste, where the amount used is small."

TagsSoap, Triclosan, Cancer