I love it when a plan comes together. I’ve had triclosan—a synthetic antibacterial found in hand sanitizers, toothpaste and all kinds of consumer products—on the brain lately, and have written much about it over the past couple months. So last night while watching a local Denver newscast, I was excited to view a segment on this chemical and its possible adverse health effects.

The segment profiled a woman with hypothyroidism whose doctor suspected her fatigue and general ill feelings had something to do with triclosan. Denver Channel 7 interviewed Sonya Lunder, a senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group and one of my most trusted triclosan experts, who explained that “this chemical shouldn't be used in consumer products.” The report described triclosan as a “pesticide” and a “toxin” and explained that “researchers at the University of California, Davis found triclosan does accumulate in the body and eventually disrupts hormone activity … that could lead to obesity, infertility and cancer.”

Why does this dismal dialogue delight me? Well, many of these conversations surrounding potential toxins, unhealthy “food” ingredients, environmental hazards, etc., begin within our natural products community and quickly become familiar topics to us. But let’s face it: There’s a whole wide world out there outside of this industry—and certainly not everyone out there visits NewHope360.com (although they should!). In the case of triclosan, I’d guess that a huge chunk of the greater Denver population hadn’t even heard of this ingredient before watching last night’s news.

So, simply put, I’m excited that the facts about triclosan are getting out there. Let’s keep spreading the word.