Steve Firth wrote:

They give a flase sense of security and there's no way of knowing which
bacteria they kill. The bacterial flora on a surface tends to be in some
sort of equilibrium, with (mostly) "good" bacteria far poutnumbering
"bad" bacteria. It's possible that antibacterials will inhibit the
growth of "good" bacteria while permitting pathogens to flourish. No one

The vast majority of bacteria cannot live on or in humans anyway...

really knows.

In the past, I had experienc eof a horrible outbreak of disease in a
hospital which was eventually traced to a cleaner who used "Dettol" in

Hospitals are unusual environments in that lots of disease causing
bacteria are deliberatly brought there. By patients with serious
bacterial diseases.

the belief that by swabbing everythign with it she was keeping the ward
nice and clean. When tested her supply of Dettol was the source of the
infection, the bugs loved the taste of it.

Sounds like this had selectivly bred bacteria which were immune to the
supposed antibacterial agent.