Multiple times a day, we wash our hands with soap and water to keep them nice and clean. While washing your hands is an essential component to good hygiene, a new study shows that the soaps we use may actually be harming our health in other ways. While you won’t be accumulating germs on your hands, you may be slowly developing muscle dysfunctions that could affect you in your later life.

According to Fox News, compound triclosan is the culprit that may be causing this muscle impairment. The chemical is used in many antibacterial soaps. Over time, it can reduce the contractions of the cardiac and skeletal muscles. The triclosan has been used on fish and mice, and in both situations the animals lost muscle use. The fish swam slower and the mice moved less once they had been doused with multiple doses of the triclosan. Triclosan was just introduced in the 1970s, and is now found in most soap sold on the shelves at our local supermarkets.

Because the compound can also affect the cardiac muscles, it can actually cause heart disease and heart failure. This means that someone who uses too much antibacterial soap could end up going into cardiac arrest. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, and the University of Colorado decided that they would look at the effects of triclosan because of the recent literature that raises health concerns about the chemical. Dr. Isaac Pessah, the lead author of the study and the professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biosciences at UUC Davis says that triclosan is a high volume chemical.

The chemical can be detected in humans when urine, breast milk, or plasma are detected. Dr. Pessah says that the chemical has increased in the human body since the triclosan was put in soaps, and will continue increasing as more and more companies add the compound into their soap recipes. Dr. Pessah also says that the chemical is in the air and near water plants, because it can escape from the manufacturing plants and is hard to dispose of. The chemical compound is also found in mouth washes, deodorants, toothpastes, washcloths, towels, kitchen utensils, bedding, and toys. All of these items are things that people use on a daily basis, meaning they are at a daily risk to muscle impairment.

In a scientific experiment, the professors at UC Davis were able to see how the triclosan can cause excitation-contraction coupling. This is essentially a condition which causes the muscles to stop contracting. Dr. Pessah says that the excitation-contraction coupling can be debilitating, even deadly. When used on mice, triclosan caused them to have an 18 percent decrease in gripping strength, and a 25 percent reduction in heart function. And to add to these shocking results, this was all within an hour of exposure to the compound. The professors concluded that the triclosan can cause serious muscle failure with little exposure. It will not lead to immediate heart failure, but may be able to create heart problems over time.

The new study is being presented to the FDA for consideration, and was released to the public by Fox News to inform the public of the dangers that could be associated with washing their hands. Manufacturers who put triclosan in their soaps are required to list it as an ingredient on their labeling. It is sometimes listed under the brand name Microban. The compound has also been linked to cancer and allergy development. If you believe that triclosan in a commercial product is responsible for your heart disease or muscle impairment, then talk to a personal injury attorney. You may have be able to seek damages from the manufacturer for having this chemical in their products, especially if they failed to list it on the packaging or provide a warning.