Re:How Crocs Rakes in Revenues From Ugly Shoes
by dime on Thursday June 12, 2008 @03:59PM
(#216244)
I like the fact that Crocs are anti-bacterial, but it also worries me. The use of anti-bacterial soap and other cleaning products in hospitals has spawned super bugs resistant to known means of combating pathogens. Could Crocs share the same fate?
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Re:How Crocs Rakes in Revenues From Ugly Shoes
by nirmal on Thursday June 12, 2008 @11:08PM
(#216512)
Is it antibacterial in the same sense as soap? I thought it was a material that just made it harder for bacteria to get a physical foot hold (no pun intended).
Re:How Crocs Rakes in Revenues From Ugly Shoes
by iamelgringo on Saturday June 14, 2008 @11:10AM
(#217545)
There are substances that are bacteriostatic, which mean that they retard the growth of bacteria. Sterile water is actually bacteriostatic, because there is no food for the bacteria to grow in.
Silver and other heavy metals are bacteriostatic as well. Other substances are bactericidal, which means that they actively kill bacteria.
Antibiotics are bactericidal. You don't want to take antibiotic or bactericidal substances on a regular basis, because you end up putting unnecessary evolutionary selection pressure on your normal bacterial flora. That is, you don't want to kill all the good bacteria, otherwise the bad ones will overpopulate because they have no competition.
I'm guessing that the crocs aren't bactericidal, they are probably baceriostatic.