(Natural News) Millions of people around the globe use chemical disinfectants and other similar cleaning products to rid their homes of disease-causing bacteria. However, scientists find that the use of these cleaners can cause bacteria to develop resistance to chemicals meant to kill them.

This is because chemical cleaners leave active residues that continue to kill bacteria — but not all of them. These surviving bacteria then reproduce, and the resulting strains come equipped with special defense mechanisms that make them stronger against antibacterial products.

Chemical cleaners linked to antibiotic resistance

Contrary to marketing claims, chemical cleaners like antibacterial soaps and disinfectants do not have any real edge over plain soap. In fact, experts believe that these products are unnecessary because plain soap alone gets rid of up to 99.4 percent of bacteria on human skin.

Although seemingly harmless, the continued overuse and misuse of chemical cleaning products are a cause for great concern among scientists. That's because bacteria might become resistant to those antibiotics commonly used by physicians to treat infections. Eventually, the resulting resistant bacteria may become "superbugs."

In the medical field, superbugs are bacteria, fungi or viruses that have become highly resistant to several kinds of antibiotics. They can also cause infections that are difficult to treat.

Additionally, the use of chemical cleaning products in millions of households has led to the presence of several toxic substances in the environment.