The currently fashionable probiotic detergents use the bacteria Bacillus subtilis and similar microbes. They are said to drive out harmful infections and live on surfaces in the form of a protective biofilm for several days.
There, the probiotics secrete enzymes and digest organic dirt. Interesting and fashionable. Only something similar already happened 50 years ago.
In 1969, British scientists studied the effect of Bacillus subtilis enzymes on workers in factories where they made detergents with these very enzymes. For some reason, the workers fell ill with allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma.
In fact, Bacillus subtilis is a microbe that lives in the ground. For humans, he seems to be safe, but he knows how to fight other microbes from the soil.
It turns out that this is a bacterium that lives in the dirt, feeds on the dirt and displaces other microbes from the dirt. So it was adapted to fight dirt.
It should be noted here that already at that time, approximately 75% of detergents were made with different enzymes.
Then it turned out that every third factory worker, after inhaling the dust with the enzymes of the same bacteria, had an allergic rhinitis or an attack of bronchial asthma. And another third of the workers had positive allergy tests.
There was a lot of noise and a powerful ventilation system was made in such factories. It seems to have worked.
Now what do I personally think about this?
Imagine buying a Bacillus subtilis detergent, spreading it all over your home, and waiting for the bacteria to make a useful biofilm on surfaces.
The bacterium lives in its biofilm and ferments all kinds of dirt. There is less dirt, less harmful microbes, but there will be more of those bacterial enzymes. Because it is these enzymes that the bacteria digest everything.
Every time you walk on such a washed floor, you will raise into the air the smallest dust with harmless bacteria, but harmful enzymes of this bacteria. And then you will breathe this dust.
In fact, modern probiotic detergents are considered promising, but not studied. That is, you still have to try them on yourself.
Let's go try?
