Netributor.com

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst recently announced that they had discovered a link between the antimicrobial ingredient triclosan, used in hand soaps and toothpastes as well as other products, and cancer.

Specifically, the research group determined that the substance could have a negative impact on colonic inflammation and colon cancer by changing gut microbiota, the microbes which reside in human intestines.

The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, indicates that short-time treatment with low-dose triclosan resulted in low-grade colonic inflammation, and pronounced disease development of colitis and colitis-associated colon cancer in mice, said Guodong Zhang, who authored the study, in a press release.