User talk:Youngeun92
Introduction
Benzalkonium chloride (BAC) is a major non-alcohol-based active ingredient used for clinical, food line, and domestic household biocides (16,19). A biocide is a general term for a chemical agent, that may be applied topically in/on living tissue (antiseptic) or on inanimate objects (disinfectant), in order to inhibit growth of (“-static”) or kill (“-cidal”) microorganisms (20). In communities where people are in constant contact with one another and surfaces covered with microorganisms, hand hygiene is important for infection control (16,26,30,31). Studies found the use of antiseptic hand sanitizers subdued the prevalence of the common cold, acute respiratory syndromes, gastroenteritis, viral influenza, and more (1,14,17,24,26,27,31). Similarly, this practice is important in limiting hospital-acquired, or nosocomial, infections between patients and clinical staff by limiting spread of opportunists like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSAs), and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VREs) (4,8,12,16,18,29). For such preventative measures, there are a variety of hand sanitizers available with alcohol and alcohol-free antiseptic agents including ethanol, triclosan and benzalkonium chloride (16,20). Recently alcohol-free hand sanitizers with triclosan or benzalkonium chloride have been gaining ground due to concerns that ethanol is dries out the skin, is too toxic, and there are frequent cases of intentional ingestion (9,13,16) Additional concerns involve the extensive use of antiseptics risking the selective survival of antiseptic resistant pathogens, which may be simultaneously selecting for antibiotic resistance (10,21,25,29). This theory of simultaneous or “cross-selection” suggests that selection of either antiseptic or antibiotic resistance will also select for the other, ultimately resulting in weaker antibacterial therapy and pressure for careful use of both biocides (1,7,25,28). Despite speculations of evolving resistance mechanisms, BACs are extensively used biocides especially efficacious against enveloped microorganisms (16,19,20).
