Hacker News Reader

Comment by Kranar | Hacker News Reader

I mean yes, technically soap will destroy viruses that are already in your body absolutely. It will also destroy many other cells and proteins in your body as well since soap is an indiscriminate killer. The end result is that both viruses and normal tissue will end up dying which will damage you or possibly kill you.

View on HN

This doesn't sound right. Soap is considered nontoxic. We all ingest soap residue from dishes and other hygiene and I've never heard anyone concerned about it.

Soap in very small amounts is nontoxic. In larger quantities soap will absolutely cause a great deal of discomfort, vomiting or even result in chemical burns in your digestive tract. Soap poisoning is absolutely something people get concerned with, especially those who have kids who are a little too curious.

The dose makes the poison. Don't eat soap.

That's not quite right either. Soaps and detergents are not intended for internal use. The residue won't kill you (because it's incredibly diluted) but ingesting the raw product would cause problems such as nausea and vomiting.

That's why there's an entirely separate class of soap products formulated specifically for those among us who own and operate a vagina.

>I've never heard anyone concerned about it.

I think people should abandon this heuristic.

Actually residue from fancy dish soaps is known to be a gut irritant, see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009167492...

For this reason, I stick to either first-generation soap (made by saponification) or simple surfactants.

In general, as a precautionary principle, it is always good to stick to simple products that have been around for a long time.

I generally try to avoid traditional soaps (saponified oils). They’re only soapy at in basic solution, and skin is naturally a bit acidic. Even for washing dishes, there are mildly unfortunate interactions — try mixing Dr. Bronner’s soap with any acidic food. You get a gooey mess that isn’t soapy. On the other hand, I suppose that traditional soap residue that anyone with normal stomach acid manages to eat will turn back into free fatty acids.

(Skin is, in general, rather more sensitive to bases than acids. Even a fairly mild base will make skin feel unpleasant and a bit slimy, whereas holding an orange slice (quite acidic) is not particularly irritating to intact skin.)

That is true. Traditional soaps are quite messy. One trick with Dr Bronner's is to rinse with vinegar afterwards to balance pH.

Lead and asbestos beg to differ. I mean, your admonition works when it works, but…

People are, in fact, concerned about it, although some studies suggest that the types of surfactants used in rinse aid are worse than the kinds used to wash dishes:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009167492...

And overuse of soap is definitely irritating to skin — this is not a particularly subtle effect.

Phosphates.. We ingest phosphates from soaps.

Dose makes the poison. A little bit of residue won't do much. Eat a whole bar of soap and you'll feel it.

It's all about the concentration. Our gastro-intestinal tract is coated in mucus which will prevent small quantities of soap from actually touching the cells.

And I think it will be neutralized by the acids inside the stomach.

Soap and detergent will kill if concentrated enough. https://www.eater.com/2015/6/18/8805047/restaurant-killed-cu...

unfortunately googling shows that mixups happen every so often, sometime due to what I’d call gross or willful negligence like storing it in a re-used food container in the fridge

Reply on news.ycombinator.com