Chemical Contamination Potential in Triple Antibiotic Ointment
- rabbitholecreek
- Mar 9
- 4 min read
If your mom was anything like mine, she put TAO on just about anything from scrapes to burns. There were half a dozen partially empty, sticky tubes of TAO rolling around the medicine cabinet. After taking a look at the ingredients, I will admit that I don’t think my kiddo will have the same nostalgic experience.
Below you will find the ingredient list of a popular triple antibiotic ointment brand that rhymes with… uh, meosporin. I’ll give a quick breakdown of what we should consider when looking at these ingredients.
Active Ingredients:
Bacitracin (400 Units), Neomycin (3.5 Mg), Polymyxin B (5,000 Units)- These antibiotics are lab fermented. Which, I cannot speak to. However, I will say that the overuse of antibiotics is a larger problem than most realize. Bacteria are smart, they mutate to survive. So, the more we unnecessarily expose bacteria to antibiotics, the stronger they get and the less effective our treatments are. I am in no way telling you not to treat infections. I am simply suggesting we be mindful of willy-nilly antibiotic use.
Inactive Ingredients:
Cocoa Butter- As reported in the cited journal, cocoa products are high in heavy metals. This is suspected to be the result of manufacturing methods. While the bean itself has some of the lowest natural lead levels, cocoa bean shells are extremely absorbent to metals. It is thought that contamination happens due to fuel emissions, shipping, and manufacturing practices. Essentially, the shell absorbs the heavy metals from the environment and during processing and manufacturing cross-contamination happens. This is true for both refined and unrefined cocoa butter. However, silica pretreatment is sometimes used in the refining of cocoa butter. To know if a cocoa butter is safe, you would need to contact the manufacturer to ask about refining methods and heavy metal testing. Understand that most foods have natural levels of heavy metals, but there is a threshold for safety vs toxicity.
Cottonseed Oil- When it comes to processing methods, cottonseed oil shares many of the same issues as Olive oil. Gossypol used in refining cottonseed oil has been shown to affect thyroid metabolism, is hepatotoxic, immunotoxic, and causes reproductive harm, per the PMC journal cited. According to NWF, “Cotton is one of the most chemically intensive crops in the world”. It is likely that cottonseed oil is contaminated with both, gossypol and pesticides.
Olive Oil- Non-organic oils are susceptible to pesticide contamination. Refined oils risk contamination of chemical solvents such as hexane. As cited, hexane is easily neurotoxic and can cause nerve damage. Heat-pressed methods negatively affect the beneficial substance of the oil. You should prioritize organic, cold-pressed oils for this reason.
Sodium Pyruvate- I’ll be honest, I do not know much about this one. I will have to dive into this at a later time. On the surface it does not look terrible, but there’s always more below the surface.
Vitamin E- Synthetically made vitamin E is commonly processed with a chemical called trimethylhydroquinone. As stated in the source below, hydroquinone has been found to be an environmental carcinogen, cause DNA damage, and alter immune function. Therefore, we should avoid vitamin E contaminated with hydroquinone.
The FDA restricts hydroquinone from OTC sale. Not that I completely trust the FDA, I don’t. However, it should be considered that if even the FDA restricts this chemical, it should raise alarms.
Before I scare you, we don’t need to abolish the use of Vitamin E in products. Vitamin E listed as “natural mixed tocopherols” in USDA Certified Organic products are relatively safe from contamination and must be non-GMO per USDA guidelines. If you see “natural tocopherol” on a product that is not certified organic, you will need to contact the company to ask about processing practices. Bubble and Bee has a fabulous blog on this if you would like to learn more.
White Petrolatum- White Petrolatum, also known as petroleum jelly, is a petrol industry by-product. According to the CDC, Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed during the incomplete burning of oil and gas, among other things. There is a risk of PAHs remaining in the finished product. As noted by the CDC, PAHs are carcinogenic and extremely damaging to the respiratory system. It should be noted that this paper only includes 17 of the 100s of PAHs and does not note research in several additional areas of concern. As sourced below, a journal from the EU shows that PAHs in foods can be genotoxic and mutagenic. Europe has regulations in place for PAH testing in their products and foods. However, there is no findable evidence that the United States follows suit. The only way to ensure a petrol product is not contaminated with PAHs is to track sourcing and ask for testing.
Alternative Choices
We are left to ask ourselves, should we really be putting triple antibiotic ointment on open wounds? If your gut is telling you no, then your brain is probably saying “then what are the alternatives?”. In our home, we use Earth Mama Diaper Balm for our baby and recently we have discovered Wild Woman Herbs Forest Healer. Both of these have natural and organic ingredients. These are safe alternatives that we offer in our store. You certainly do not have to purchase from us, but I will open pre-orders on these products in case we go out of stock. Of course, there are many other non-toxic alternatives that you can find outside of what our store offers.
Sources:
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