The Progression of Soap in Society: From Animal Fats to Hand Sanitizer

          Because I, myself, have developed a strong aversion against germs, especially when regarding my hands, I have decided to go back in time to trace the development of human civilization’s use of various materials in the manufacturing of soap to solve the problem of individual and communal hygiene. Beginning with the Babylonians in ancient Mesopotamia, hygiene has come a long way across the centuries, building its way up to the pocket-sized bottle of chemical sludge modern day society refers to as “hand sanitizer.” It’s not just the make up of the formula that has evolved, however. Contemporary mindsets of our society have turned the need for sanitation into a phobia of any and all germs. I can’t help but to constantly use this hygienic goop because I have, admittedly so, fallen for the false sense of safety provided by the bright and bold typeface informing me of the prevention of “99.9%” of germs upon use.

            Hand sanitizer is just one of the many products humans have constructed with the ultimate intent to keep our species free from malicious bodily agents. Hygiene, though numerous in variation relative to design, has been around since prehistoric periods, as there would be no existing people today without a sense of cleanliness; a progressive strand of inherent need leading to the innovation of new ways to keep our civilization from illness and disease. It all started with the cleansing of cooking apparatuses using plant matter, wood ash, and animal fat during the rise of the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians. It wasn’t until about 19^th century A.D. that actual soap bars were invented for means of cleanliness, after Rome fell to their close neighbors and the plague of Black Death (“The History of Soap,” 2013).

            Absolute cleanliness is next to impossible, but inventions like hand sanitizer get us closer and closer to this unobtainable goal with each squirt. Hygiene as a whole has completely shifted over time from a necessity to a luxury and became particularly wide spread with the boom of mass marketing in the early 1900s. Proctor & Gamble was the first company to create a brand out of the product to advertise from and its ads were so theatrical that when they came on during daytime dramas, they deemed the nickname “Soap Operas” (“The History of Soap,” 2013). Bars of soap quickly turned to liquid soap. And, with the prominence of liquid soap came the fear that bars of soap were forever dirty after first use and could never really acquire the same level of sanitation it had after being freshly opened.

            The function here is clear: hygiene. The form of which has changed drastically over the years, but the overall objective hasn’t. Following liquid soap was today’s version of hand sanitizer, which has carried with it a stigma about germs and personal hygiene our society can’t seem to shake.  I know I can’t. I’m already a bit obsessive about washing my hands, so if you can imagine what that looks like, then I’m sure you can imagine what the development of hand sanitizer has done to my desire for cleanliness from palm to palm… Not to mention it doesn’t even kill 100% of the germs, helping the .01% of germs it doesn’t kill to translate into super-germs. So, what’s next… an agent that kills 100% of germs? Would humans even be able to survive in a world with absolutely no germs, given their large role in our universal ecosystem? Probably not. Maybe we should turn our gears toward finding cures for fatal diseases and infections rather than stressing over a little bit of dirt on our fingertips. Personally, I’m working hard at ridding myself of this need to constantly clean my hands.

References

The History of Soap. (2013, March 19). Retrieved September 19, 2015, from http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/03/the-history-of-soap/