CleanWell products

Physicians advocate washing your hands five times a day. My favorite medical hero is Ignaz Semmelweis, the Hungarian doctor who performed his research at Vienna's maternity hospital and had the temerity to suggest that his colleagues could spread disease through failure to wash their hands. His theories were derided as laughable and insulting to the profession, and he died in a mental institution after being roundly discredited and succumbing to a downward spiral of disintegration.

This was the mid-nineteenth century and Dr. Semmelweis advocated use of chlorine cleansers. Science marches on, and now chlorine is widely used to sanitize. However, there is speculation that its interaction with cleansers such as triclosan can result in chloroform, and there is documentation that triclosan itself is a carcinogen and endocrine disruptor, and can be found in human breast milk in addition to anti-bacterial products. Disturbing. Also, many hand sanitizers (a product I don't use, but appears to be in common circulation) are effectively ninety-proof and can prove a health risk if your toddler chugs some.

CleanWell cleansers are alcohol and chlorinated-phenolic-compound-free. Dr. Larry Weiss has concocted their active ingredient, Ingenium, from a variety of plants and substances—thyme and oregano among them—and it has been demonstrated to be a 99.99% effective anti-bacterial agent by testing performed at ATS labs in Minnesota (FDA and EPA licensed). The basic logic of not using personal care products that aren't ingestible appeals: don't put anything on your body that you wouldn't put in your body, particularly if it breaks down to dioxins or causes mutant bullfrogs. The foaming hand cleansers contain aloe and white tea and come in orange and vanilla, lavender and absolute, and spearmint and lime.

•