Really happy about this - literally just ranted to my partner this week about how we should ban antibacterial soap. It has no place outside of a hospital, and is only contributing to the problems we're facing.
But we don't use the antibacterials in soaps as therapeutic agents to treat infections. So if a bacteria becomes resistant to triclosan, it has no impact on the effectiveness of antibiotics.
> we don't use the antibacterials in soaps as therapeutic agents to treat infections
Why would you think that changes anything? The bacteria don't care about our intentions. Artificial selection works the same regardless. From the link you were replying to:
[...] exposure to triclosan was associated with a high risk of
developing resistance and cross-resistance in Staphylococcus aureus
and Escherichia coli.
> if a bacteria becomes resistant to triclosan, it has no impact on the effectiveness of antibiotics.
Do you think the bacteria magically lose their resistance to an antibiotic (or cross-resistance to a similar antibiotic biochemical mechanism)? Evolution doesn't care why a bacteria developed a mutation that produced a resistance to a particular chemical. All that matters is that they, as survivors, will pass on that mutation to future generations. Any resistant strain will have an advantage in the future, which includes resistance to any antibiotics that work similarly.
By the way, heredity isn't the only way a resistant trait can spread to future bacteria. Horizontal gene transfer[1] is a thing. Bacteria can spread the resistance gene among the current-generation.
