Is Dial Glycerin soap discontinued? Dial is a body wash and soap brand from the United States. They were the first antibacterial soap ever made. Due to declining demand from their retail partners, Dial has stopped making its Dial Men bar soaps. However, you may get Dial Glycerin soap at shops.
The active ingredient in Dial, hexachlorophene, was restricted in hospital settings. It was taken off the public market in the early 1970s based on claims that it harmed infants’ developing nervous systems. Let us read about it further in this article.
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Where are Dial soaps made?
Henkel Corporation is an American business with its headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. It is also known as Henkel North American Consumer Products and was once known as the Dial Corporation. It is a part of the German business Henkel AG & Co. They produce personal care and home cleaning products. They are the manufacturer of the Dial line of products.
Dial has been a well-known brand in America for almost 65 years. It keeps giving our family and us clean, healthy skin. The ideal products for our skin are available from Dial. Their items, which range from bar soap to body wash to liquid hand soap and lotions, will bring benefits. This includes moisture, exfoliation, safety, replenishment, etc. Body wash, bar soap, hand soap, lotion, liquid hand sanitizer, and more products are available from Dial.
History of Dial brand
Armour & Company began researching creating a brand-new deodorant soap in 1946. Deodorant soaps, like Lifebuoy, often contained cresol derivatives and smelled strongly of medicine.
Robert E. Casely, a research scientist at Amour, experimented with various compounds. When he ran out of options, he used hexachlorophene. He used tiny cotton pads to test the deodorizing properties of the chemical in his armpits. Hexachlorophene performed well as a deodorant and caused no skin irritation. Also, it remained effective when added to soap. It had a light odor that could be easily hidden by fragrance.
Later, in 1948, Amour introduced a new soap with hexachlorophene under “Dial.” He heavily advertised the products. By 1951, Dial’s sales had overtaken Lifebuoy’s. By 1954, it was the top-selling popular soap in the US by dollar volume.
Hexachlorophene was mostly used in cosmetics for teenagers and people with poor skin. To fight the bacteria that cause pimples and acne, it was included in cleansers, masks, and other skincare products.
What happened to Dial?
Despite being used in a wide variety of products, little research has been done on the impact of hexachlorophene on the body. Health officials were aware that hexachlorophene levels increased with repeated usage. But they did not see this as a cause for concern. Hexachlorophene absorption into the body was believed to be incredibly rare. It is due to the compound’s poor solubility.
By the 1970s, this mindset was starting to shift. Hexachlorophene was found to be absorbed into the body, where it may impact the nervous system. But a production error in France forced the health officials to act before they could react to these claims.
In response to the fatalities in France, the FDA issued a recall of consumer goods with more than 0.75% hexachlorophene in 1972. Other health agencies severely limited the use of it throughout the world.
About 1.8 million kilograms of the substance were produced yearly for pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. This was at the time the FDA filed the recall notice. As a result, the FDA order impacted many consumer goods.
Around 1972, there was a rise in the sale of “natural” skincare items. Thus, a move towards more “natural-looking” makeup trends happened in the United States. This occurred at the same time as the removal of hexachlorophene from products.
Dial undergone changes
Armour-Dial switched to the synthetic antibacterial ingredient triclocarban. It was when the FDA banned hexachlorophene use in non-medical products. From 1953 until the mid-1990s, Dial became the top deodorant soap brand in the United States.
The FDA again declared in September 2016 that triclocarban and triclosan-containing antibacterial soaps could not be promoted. In their place, Dial used benzethonium chloride for bar soap. They used benzalkonium chloride for liquid hand soaps.
The FDA also said in its 2016 ruling that it would postpone the final rule. They planned to allow for producing and submitting new clinical and safety evidence for these substances. The antibacterial washes with these particular components may be sold while data are being gathered.
Now Dial soap has changed. The antibacterial component triclosan, or triclocarban, is no longer used. Currently, it uses benzalkonium chloride.
Conclusion
Dial hand soaps use benzalkonium chloride as their active ingredient. It helps kill 99.9% of bacteria in domestic settings within 30 seconds. When washing our hands, antibacterial soap is more effective at preventing the spread of germs than regular soap and water.
There is no proof that antibacterial soaps work better than regular soaps to stop infections in most situations. It may be at home or in public. And hence, plain soap is advised for use in public, private, and domestic contexts.