Can a soap be dirty? In a sense that there are still some bacteria living on it.
In: Chemistry
A lot of misinformation here.
First of all, domestic-use anti-microbial soap is notoriously bad at removing bacteria. Some studies show zero benefit over normal soap.
Secondly, of course soap and other detergents disrupt cell membranes, including that of most bacteria. Even your hands will eventually suffer after the layer of dead skin has been removed due to repeatedly washing.
However, the process is not fast, some bacteria might be more resilient, viruses might be completely unaffected, as well as some more exotic bacteria that go into a dormant state where even antibiotics or desiccation will not harm them. They would still be able to sit on a completely dried out bar of soap, waiting to reproduce when conditions improve.
So the answer is: some bacteria and some viruses might be able to live on a bar soap or inside a container of liquid soap, so yes, it might be dirty in the sense of not being sterile.
One of the reasons why surgeons scrub their hands so extensively with soap containing harsh antimicrobial agents, usually chlorhexidine or povidone-iodine, which cannot be found in antimicrobial soap for domestic use. It usually only contains triclosan in low concentrations, which on paper is a good antimicrobial agent, but in practice and in soap doesn’t make much of a difference.
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