'Development of a Germicidal Soap': the Invention and Use of Hexachlorophene in the American Post-World-War-Two Age of Confidence and Cleanliness

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

Scientist William S. Gump of the Givaudin-Delawanna chemical company synthesized the chemical compound hexachlorophene in the early 1940s. A germicide with the ability to kill infectious microbes when added to soaps, the chemical decreased the amount of time necessary to clean hands and also remained on the hands after washing, continuing to destroy germs. Its use was soon widespread in surgical washes and in solutions used to wash babies in hospital nurseries.

In the 1940s, scientists and marketers rode the wave of public confidence in the curative powers of emerging antibiotics, pesticides and other inventions, and found the general public eager to use antimicrobials in other settings as well. First marketed to consumers in 1948, Dial soap was the first consumer product to contain hexachlorophene, and advertisements for the new product emphasized the effectiveness of the product in killing a particular kind of bacteria—the kind that made human perspiration stink. This marketing created “the sweet smell of success,” according to the trade magazine Chemical Week, and a “germicidal gold rush” emerged among chemical companies and the soap companies who bought these products.

However, by 1972, the chemical was banned from consumer products, and its usage limited in hospitals. With Gump and other chemists finding these restrictions very overzealous, physicians and public health authorities decried deaths and neurological damage incurred through its use, especially in hospital nurseries. Both the popularity of the chemical as well as its downfall make up the narrative of this talk.

Martha N. Gardner, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of History and Social Sciences at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. She received her AB in Women’s Studies from Brown University in 1988 and received a Ph.D in US History from Brandeis University in 1998. She has written and lectured nationally and locally on aspects of medicine and public health in US history, specializing in American women in health care and the cultural history of the cigarette in the US. Her publications include “‘The Doctors’ Choice is America’s Choice’: the Physician in US Cigarette Advertisements, 1930-1953,” in the American Journal of Public Health.