I get how soap works by breaking down outer layers of cells, especially in viruses and bacteria, which is how it protects us (correct me if I’m wrong). My question is why does everyone, including surgeons scrubbing in for surgery, massage the soap around their hands and arms? Couldn’t we just apply the soap, wait 20 seconds, then rinse it off? Maybe it’s a surface area thing, making sure soap is applied everywhere?
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Soap doesn’t inherently kill germs or bacteria. It encompasses them and flushes them down the sink. Same thing with dirt. To maximize how many particulates get encapsulated in the soap, scrubbing to break the adhesion and release from your skin is necessary and thus maximizes how many go down the drain.
Anti bacterial soaps do kills germs but it is specifically because it’s anti bacterial, not because it is soap.
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