apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

good thing they don't come in pairs.

Wow that's cool! I've never seen that before. I guess I'm an idiot; it took me a moment (or two!) to realize the white part is actually the soap itself. I was thinking, "how do you get the soap out of the white thing?" :) *sigh* Oh well...I only got like five hours of sleep last night. A little slow on the uptake...

That is absolutely disgusting. Bar soap must be rinsed between uses to remove the contamination of dirt and germs. Screwing it to the wall prevents cleaning the soap. This is a good way to spread disease.

MrGreen will stick with liquid soap at the sink, thank you.

MrGreen never ceases to make me giggle!

Mr. Green, you are a tough critic, aren't you?

But think about the design for a second.

If they were designed for use in public schools - and worked for years and years - don't you think they must pass the contamination test? We're not scientists, but we have used one of these for a few months and it stays perfectly clean, even as it gets smaller.

They are slightly vulgar looking, but very cool at the same time. I'm surprised they were so hard to find, the design is so simplistic.

Why does any one respond to some one who writes in the 3rd person? I don't think 'MrGreen' is an actual person. I think it is some one who wants to yank the folks who participate in the on going exchanges of information.

Good point, Mason. Do you remember the Manolo shoe blog?

No, it doesn't pass the contamination test. That it was designed many years ago for use in french schools means nothing. Here's one study:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1145785

but there are many more, all you have to do is google it. The soap actually acts as a reservoir of infection.

Bar soap is anathema to infection control experts. You might as well wash your hands and then touch the faucet handle and doorknob in a public restroom.

It doesn't take a tough critic to be put off by something like this, just someone who is concerned with cleanliness and not spreading disease.

hehe. maxwell - wondahful.

Won't the soap just drip onto the floor like in public bathrooms? I don't want a little pile of hardened soap goo on my floor.

Also, all of the studies were done with bar soap which is used in the hands under running water. Screw that bar of soap to the wall where it is repeatedly contaminated without rinsing it and it becomes a veritable cesspool of infectious organisms.

And of course you can't see micro-organisms, that's why they're called micro-organisms.

My lunch is ruined.

"Vegetable based," does that mean vegetarian, as in no tallow?

I'm a public health student, and that grosses me out a little.

Seriously, gross. My first thoughts weren't even about contamination, and i hated it right away. Its a little obscene looking, no? And i'm just imagining inviting people over and asking them to wrap their hands around a pole and jerk back and forth on that thing until they get some good foam going.

Again, gross.

Sorry AT, I hate to be negative, but I've had experience with these and they are not so nice after being used a bunch. There is a reason why they're used in institutions in Europe and nowhere else.

For once I agree with Mr. Green, weird third-person writing or not.

If you don't touch a door handle in a public restroom after washing your hands, how the hell do you get out? MrGreen if you tell me that you cover the handle with a cloth or piece of paper towel it will really explain a lot about you...

Having said that I probably wouldn't use this if I saw it in a public restroom because it would seem a little icky to me, but I'd probably put one in my own home, it's definitely a conversation piece (and also handy).

I had to endure these at my elementary school (private school; public school probably would have had a better setup). The soap drips everywhere and makes slick messes on the floor and sinks, and I agree with all of the comments made about how unsanitary they are. Even as a small child I thought they were disgusting.

I can't imagine why anyone would want one in their home. You'll be sorry you installed it!

I don't have time to read Mr. Green's cited study, but when bar soaps are studied for harboring bacteria, I suspect they are studied when they are stored in a typical soap dish (i.e., wet).

A dry bar of soap would be a much less hospitable place for bacteria, right? This soap would dry out fairly quickly. If your hands were really dirty and you left some dirt on the soap, you could rinse it off with wet hands.

Why in the world did AT think that this was a good idea? Don't I remember a posting asking for opinions on these grotesques before, and weren't the majority in the negative?

Mr Green,

I think you have a good and valid point about the 'cleanliness' of this soap. I have often wondered about this very issue with this design which has been of interest to Maxwell for some time and I am glad he managed to find a source for it.

Personally, I wouldn't install it in a kitchen or bathroom (note to readers, I am offering no opinion about where you chose to install the soap). However, there are places I might find such a device be useful - such as a laundry room, art studio, potting shed or similar where cleaning off the dirt and mess of performing a certain job is necessary but it isn't required to be prepared to perform major surgery. Sometimes you just need to clean up enough to keep doing the job.

It's a shame your delivery of the opinion can not be delivered in a more constructive manner. I find your comments to be so combative and rude that I don't WANT to agree with you.

I never touch any bar soaps in public bathrooms and I barely see them either. I understand why. But this is such a nice looking soap. I don't mind using it over my kitchen sink. But I hesitate to ask my guest to use this. Maybe not for the bathrooms.

Mr Green ( as usual) you are incorrect. You didnt read the study you just cited. There isnt any hard scientific evidence to say that stationary bar soaps cause more ILLNESS than mobile bar soap or liquid soap. We ( in the medical and public health community) do have evidence that generally bar soaps have a higher microbial load than liquid soaps http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=241514. Higher bacterial load does not neccessarily translate into more infection. So, the bar soap that Maxwell has put up is safe for home use. If you want to continue with your current handcleaning regimen go ahead. But stop being so negative about every topic- it is so tiresome.

IOW, I don't find it any nastier than a regular bar of soap.

The germ freak's guide to washing hands in a bathroom:
-Turn on water.
-Cringe.
-Soap up hands and wash soap dispenser pump, so it can be used for future soapings.
-Rinse off germs.
-Soap up hands and wash faucet knobs, so they can be turned off with future clean hands.
-Rinse off germs.
-Soap up hands and wash hands.
-Rinse off germs.
-Turn off water.
-Carefully take paper towel without touching dispenser.
-Dry hands.
-Use paper towel to open door.
-Toss towel into trash as the door is closing, Michael Jordan style.
-Don't touch anything.

I bought one of these when AT profiled it in the spring. I love it. It stays cleaner and creates less mess than the bar I used in the kitchen before. I have never noticed any dripping onto the kitchen counter and have yet to be struck with any noxious soap-borne diseases. And I like having one less item to clutter up my kitchen sink area.

well, the cleanliness of this thing aside, wouldn't it be a huge mess? i mean, if your hands are wet and you wipe them on this and it drips, it's not going to be looking so nice and pristine for long. And, doesnt bar soap discolor and crack when it gets old?

maybe it would be ok in a garage next to a utility sink, but i cant imagine expecting people to use it inside their homes. there's got to be a great looking classic soap dispenser that would be much more appropriate.

can we get a picture of where you're installing it in your home, maxwell? is it over the sink/next to the sink, etc...

In the article cited by Mr.G, the first line of the Results section shows that it was the sludge in the soapdish that yielded positive bacterial cultures. The soap bar itself was not tested, so it's unclear whether the French "dispenser" would be more sanitary because the bar is not sitting in sludge.

As to ongoing negativity, best course is not to respond - attention reinforces the behavior, even when the attention itself is negative.

Good point Alex... re art studio, potters shed... work area. and the soap dries so its never a sticky mess sitting in a pool of water like most soap dishes. I like it. and you don't have to take up counter space with a soap pump.

Maxwell, how about a post on the best soap dishes/dispensers? Personally, I like a bar of soap in the shower, but I hate bar soap when it soaks up water and gets soft. I use a wire "dish" that drains on to the shelf below it, but many dishes hold water or drain into a "drip tray" that gets nasty.

Regardless of the germ factor (whether it be true or false) I wouldn't want to use that thing, but far be it for me to deny anyone else. On the "germ freak's guide to public bathrooms"...maybe I had germ freak bred into me, but that description isn't too far off from what I practice. Except most public bathrooms that I come in contact with (like at the movie theatre or in restaurants) have a soap dispenser that requires very little touching, and automatic faucets. Then all that is left to avoid is touching the door, which, as described, can be done with a paper towel (or in bathrooms with air hand dryers) a shirt or jacket sleeve, or in the case of none of those being present, a combination of elbow and foot. Does this make me crazy? Just think of all the people who don't wash their hands and touch the handle of the door! (I also travel at all times with anti-bacterial waterless hand wash, but I don't use it obsessively)

If bacteria were an issue, if there were bacteria on the soap before you wash your hands wouldn't the bacteria wash off of your hands as you washed your hands? And then a second caress of the bulbous soap orb would mostly likely be bacteria free. This process takes only seconds. Besides, I don't know where Mr. Green's thumb has been if I'm going to use his bottled soap pump. No offense Mr. Green, I'm just saying...It's easier to wash off a bar of soap than an entire bottle.

And it better be because of building codes that all public bathroom doors are not required to be pushed open from the inside because I don't want to touch that handle.

The people who don't wash their hands and touch the handle of the door also touch other things throughout the day--like the stair rail, the printer, books, the coffeepot, the xerox machine--I'm just going through my mind of things I've touched today that other people have touched, and that's not counting the bus, which would probably make a germophobe's head explode. I haven't tried it, but I imagine it's very hard to get through the day without touching things that other people have touched, or shaking hands...

I saw this at the Conran Shop this week, and thought about what it would look like after a month of use - half the size and cracky...not so pretty. It's lame, but I've been known to throw away a bar of soap because it looks old and ukky.

I'll just stick with my trusty refillable liquid soap dispenser.

art, exactly. But how would you wash off a bar of soap when it's screwed to the wall? That's precisely why this bathroom hardware is perverse and disgusting.

Anne in Chicago sums up my thoughts. How could I ever sanitize all the surfaces I have to touch during the day? So I choose not to stress about how germ-laden they probably are. I do the best I can and hope my immune system takes care of the rest.

Re: "And i'm just imagining inviting people over and asking them to wrap their hands around a pole and jerk back and forth on that thing until they get some good foam going."

Now I soooooo want one.

Or,

"patrick (the other one) sooooooo wants one."

There is one of these in the bathroom at a cafe in my neighborhood. I've always thought it was really gross. It feels naughty when you are trying to get the soap off and over the years it's become gunky, discolored and crumbly. I don't think they've ever changed the actual bar out. I stopped using it cause I figured that my hands would be cleaner without using the soap.

Other than to note that I agree with Trumystique's assessment of the study Mr. Green referenced above, I also agree that using this for some sort of studio or utility sink would be most practical. At first glance, I wanted one of these bad, until I too realized that it would probably be a drippy, gross mess soon after it's installed.

As for germs...eh. Coming from a bit of a clean/tidyness freak, I don't worry about germs too much. Unless I've been handling raw meat or am about to slice someone open on an operating table (another note on the study- it was conducted in a hospital- most people don't have reason to live in a sterile environment), plain soap and water will do just fine. I think the antibacterial hype is complete bull.

I'm in the happy position of being able to agree with both P(2) and mr. green. The thought of what that object might be used to, uh, clean....

While I don't share Maxwell enthusiasm for this product, it is a legitimate design problem/design solution. It should be respected as such, but perhaps as one time has not been kind to.

Bloody hell everyone its only soap!

P (2) I agree w/you! A fun addition. tin_angel....finally a sensible observation.

tin_angel, bravo... finally.

People, it's soap... therefore it never get dirty! Soap is used for CLEANING things so logic would dictate that it CAN'T be dirty. ;)

Seriously though it's a little funny looking.

I wouldn't worry too much about the health risks, after all it would be used in your home, not a public restroom.

i like it!

I like it, and I'm a microbiologist! I can't imagine that it would get too dirty.

...all this for a pervert piece of looking soap.

hmmmm interesting.

its an interesting concept. but i am one for a visually appealing bathroom and when this ball on a hook starts to look all stank, it will lose its cool.

to be honest i could careless bout micro bactria crap.everything we touch has some sort of germs on it. unless we live in a plastic bubble and walk around with latex free rubber gloves...but we dont.

its soap. plain ole perverted looking soap.

germaphobes do touch things in the real world - they just try to avoid the nastiest things.

Nothing is nastier than the first place people touch after wiping their pee or poo. For many people who don't wash their hands, the first place they touch is the door handle. By skipping that one step (with a paper towel) I not only avoid touching a lot of people's body waste, but I avoid passing that on to all the other surfaces I encounter throughout the day.

If we all washed our hands, this wouldn't be a problem.

It's ugly. :P

I think it's a good idea to bring back white gloves.

It's only perverse if you mount it at an awkward height.

Sorry, couldn't resist. I want one, but I'm too cheap to spend $40 on a soap thingee.

Oh come on... for everyone who's worried about the soap being clean, or public restroom handles being gross: ever heard of the toilet aerosol effect? When you flush your toilet with the seat up, the flush creates an aerosol spray (NYTimes article here) of bacteria and fecal matter that can travel about 10 feet, possibly landing on toothbrushes, sink handles, etc. You can test this out by putting a paper towel over the toilet bowl when you flush it.

Point being, germs are everywhere, and most of the time they're not going to do any harm. But you might want to keep the seat down when you flush just in case.

This has been hilarious!

I love this country, but it's really a nation of hysterical germophobes - and, from all the comments about the soap's suggestive shape, puritans.

As several of the more reasonable posters have suggested, germs are everywhere. Just about every other week, a tabloid will run around swabbing surfaces like phones and TV remotes and the railings you hold in the subway, and then display the resulting petri dish jungle and squawk. Yes, there are bacteria everywhere, but so what? We have thick skin and immune systems and whatnot, and the bacteria we touch are usually quickly dispatched. Just washing your hands from time to time is fine, unless you have some form of major immunocompromise.

Why does everyone in this country start frothing at the thought of tiny microbes? The obvious answer is that there's a huge industry devoted to making you paranoid: you love your disinfectant sprays, your chemical wipes, your travel boxes of protective toilet seat covers. The world is not as dangerous as you like to make it! God knows how people here are able to kiss each other, let alone, yikes, make love!

And as far as this handsoap goes, you wet your hands, wipe them on the soap to pick up a little, then rub your hands together to generate a lather, then rinse. Yes, people using this hand soap don't finish washing their hands by wiping it on the soap that worries Mr. Green so much: they rinse of the soap residue at the end.

And sure they might have missed a few bacteria, but even if they'd used a cannister of germicide, as soon as they leave the bathroom and go into the outside germ-brimming world, they'll rapidly be recolonized.

And so what? Unless, as another poster said, they're doing major surgery, it doesn't matter. ALL of the surfaces around us and on us are covered in bacteria.

PS Don't bother showing me studies say this or studies say that - I'm a physician, and I know what infection is and how it happens.

(Oh, and please forgive the condescending tone and the "you" - I love this country and it's people, and I live here, but I am English. And I also used "you" to refer to the people who love the illusory safety provided by disinfectant products.)

I don't care for the looks of it, and I think it would look even worse when the soap has worn down to a smaller amount.

My cousin had something very similar in her flashy 1980s bathroom only you used any old bar of soap and puched a piece of metal into it which then was attached to a metal bar on the wall via a magnet so at least you could take the soap off the wall to use - but as the soap wore out it did indeed dry out and get crumbly and disgusting looking and invariably fell off the metal bit - I doubt you'd be able to use this all the way down without it breaking off the metal bar

(Personally I too would not use bar soap outside of my own home - its jsut too skanky to think that someone else has rubbed their dirty hands all over it - I usually use liquid soap everywhere and indeed the washing guidelines given above are what I try to do - for those people who say don't worry germs are everywhere, I'm guessing they are the ones who don't wash their hands after using the toilet...)

A thought - how many of you wash your hands BEFORE using the toilet??
If you've been out all day shopping for instance using public transport, handrails, door handles etc. and use a public rest room, would you think about washing your hands before using the cubicle and coming into contact with yourself? - thats probably just as important as washing them afterwards especially for women...

i prefer to lick my palms first.

PS Don't bother showing me studies say this or studies say that - I'm a physician, and I know what infection is and how it happens.
posted by Jaze on 2007-07-04 07:33:57

Only an idiot would say something like that.

People, it's SOAP... on a stick.

get over it.

I admit I cant help but disagree when I think folk are wrong (and I usually can disagree without throwing my medical/public health credentials around). Thus my gleefully getting into this thread. It is just soap. I agree. But I think it says something about this community (which is mostly American). Have you noticed that threads that have do to with cleaniliness and contagion (bedbugs, housecleaning, sheet change, soap etc) have some of the most posts?

RE: "Only an idiot would say something like that."

Jeez, I'm scared to voice my little opinion.

This has been enlightening thread.

As a european I cant help but snigger inside when I see someone reach for a papertowel to help them leave the bathroom. Glad to finally understand that logic, but I'll still be sniggering inside.

Thanx Pete and Mason! ILoveUpstate - your last post made me laugh! :)

Good point Violetsrose.
There is actually one place, which will go unmentioned, where I wash my hands before I use the toilet, after I use the toilet and then once again before resuming my activities.

According to health officials, one cannot wash their hands enough times in the day. If anything washing one's hands after the toilet is good etiquette. But I was surprised after a conversation with my uncle, who is a doctor, that he washes his hands each time he enters his clinic then just uses antibacterial liquid throughout the day. I was under the impression that doctor's hands would be washed constantly but they do work in a pretty sterile environment I guess.

Hopefully, with my line of work, cooking, many people have benefited from my militant handwashing policies.

It's obvious that this is just soap we are talking about but I'm positive it's a symbol for something bigger.

brittanykate: 'Jeez, I'm scared to voice my little opinion.'

That's the intended result. Soon, everyone will understand that there can only be ONE authority on any topic on AT, and we all know who that must be....

Meanwhile, thank you Jaze, Trumystique, Jon_B, and others with sane views on germs and soap. And for the record, I'm an American who never fails to be amazed at what people will think sexually suggestive (do you people have problems holding, twisting, and pumping doorknobs, too?). Yes, it's always been a country of Puritans.

Oh, and I wash my hands a lot.... best way to avoid spreading germs. I wish more food workers followed art's example.

I love this country, but it's really a nation of hysterical germophobes - and, from all the comments about the soap's suggestive shape, puritans.

Suggested bumper sticker: Americans -- We Wash Soap.

Best of both worlds - here in my office in Seoul we have ones that are magnetized. You stick a beer cap or top of a bottle of soda into the soap, and then it stays in place in the extended-arm magnetized holder.

You can take it off to rinse it and lather it up under the faucet, and the added bonus is that it will work with ANY soap - you don't have to thread anything through the soap, or buy any special kinds of soap.

They have the kind shown above in the subway bathrooms. Yes, they look seriously gross after a few weeks.

im not a puritan cause i think this has a perverted shape. im just a furniture snob with a perverted mind...

ha

hey since we are bringing back the oldies...what about soap on a rope.hahahha

bellaknollie: "im just a furniture snob with a perverted mind..." Ha! You're right...and I regret that I made it sound like the relationship between sexuality and design was so two-dimensional. Of course, it's much, much more complicated than my previous comment would suggest.

And, wende in phoenix: that bumper sticker is hilarious!

brittanykate, MrGreen would like to point out to you that he did *not* criticize Jaze's opinion, although he certainly could have; he only Criticized her hubristic attitude and refusal to consider scientific evidence while simultaneously presenting herself as a physician.

Gross and lame. Can't imagine how this would look good or could be considered good design - I can see the previous suggestion of it's use in a garage sink or a art studio sink, but someone touching meat in a kitchen, for example, and then using this? Yuck. I wouldn't risk it. And I can imagine the mess it makes.

As far as the bathroom goes, yes, I use a paper towel to turn off the water in the sink (why touch the handle with dirty hands and then recontaminate your hands by turning it off?) and use my shirt to open the door on the way out. And hand sanitizer whenever I use the copier, etc. Most people get colds by touching a surface someone else has touched and then touching their face. I ALWAYS used to get colds when everyone else did in the office but since the hand sanitizer, everyone got sick a few months ago EXCEPT me. I'll stick with my "paranoid" methods, thanks.

(And I believe the reason Americans are so stressed about germs is because our health care options are often precarious or expensive - creates a terror of getting sick).

First of all, ENOUGH with all this talk of contamination of soap and the spread of germs. You people have just swallowed all the anti-microbial soap ad campain hook line and sinker. washing your hands with soap will not spread germs. I did a double blinded study in my microbiology class comparing anti-microbial and bar soap and there was no statistically difference between them. none.

i swear, germophobes are the most uneducated people on health science ever. washing your hands with ANY soap for 45 seconds kills 99% of germs. in fact you don't want to kill all the flora on your hands b/c it helps build you immune system. so i laugh at all the freaks i see at my hospital who wait for people to open doors for them or use a paper towel to touch something. sure enough in the next minute or 2 they touch their face or a keyboard with is probably worse.

get over yourselves. and on a side note: the dirtiest thing you put in your mouth all day is your toothbrush.

If everything in the world is so contaminated, just follow these 3 simple rules:

-Wash hands after using the bathroom.
-Wash hands before eating.
-Keep fingers out of eyes, nose, and mouth.

(May still need to use paper towels to open doors in gas station bathrooms in Missoura)

"get over yourselves."

It's really amusing to me how upset people get about other people's hygenie habits. Thanks for the giggle on this after 4th morning at work! You do it your way, I'll do it mine. I'll do what it takes to stop myself from getting sick.

MrGreen, Jaze may be an idiot, but he's also a *dude*! XY, baby!

I don't think I was being "hubristic", I was being dismissive, specifically dismissive of your position. I like think my post was arrogant, rather than prideful.

At the end of the day, the argument here is whether this soap is clean enough. Me, washing my hands with that thing would be a risk I'd be prepared to take. And I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep afterwards!

One thing about germophobes that worries me: some of them use their feet to flush the toilets in public bathrooms. A germophobic friend confessed that to me!

Wait...are you not supposed to use your feet to flush public toilets? I mean, if they have a residential-style toilet, I use my hand, but if they have one of those levers that is at foot-flushing height, I use my foot. This is one of those things that my mom taught me and I never questioned. Uh oh.

Well, the foot-pedal toilets are supposed to be flushed with feet, but I've learned that many germophobes flush the residential style toilet handles using their feet, and also the Flushometer-style public toilets. Which I think is unconscionable, pretty much.

If you're afraid to touch the handle - which other people are touching, maybe even precious children too young to have yet been indoctrinated into the fear of germs culture! - please just use toilet paper or a paper towel, rather than transferring floor-around-the-toilet germs to the handle!

Jaze, when they clean public toilets they use a mop, a brush, and a rag. Everything that can't be cleaned with a mop is cleaned with a brush. Everything that can't be cleaned with a mop or brush is cleaned with a rag. The goal is to make everything *look* clean. The same rag that wipes the rim of the actual toilet wipes the handle that you flush it with, as well as the faucets and the sink, and anything else that looks dirty or smudged, such as the door handle.

If you are lucky, they use a chemical solution that purports to kill microbes. Of course, the label will be in English, and the person using it might not read English. They may not bother to use it at all.

If you go into a public toilet and touch fixtures with your hand, you are picking up disease-causing germs such as E. coli. Scientific studies--those things you don't want to know about--have demonstrated this consistently.

Most of the time, the organisms won't make you sick. But sometimes they will. And if you are a physician, you know that some of these organisms can even be lethal, especially to people with immuno-suppression, or infants. MRSA is a real problem these days in health care facilities. There are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of nosocomial infections annually, most of them caused by improper handwashing.

So there are good reasons why people don't want to touch fixtures in public toilets.

Now you can add to the list of reasons the fact that people (whom you call "germophobes") flush the toilets with the sole of their shoes and those shoes are covered with the microbes growing on that wet bathroom floor that is washed daily with a mopwater and urine broth of bacteria, viruses, and fecal material.

"Of course, the label will be in English, and the person using it might not read English. They may not bother to use it at all."

A little xenophobic are we?

kdka, you may be xenophobic, but MrGreen is not. Please leave him out of your "we".

I do not want a cup of that broth Mr. Green!

But you are on the money when you describe typical public restroom cleaning methods.

The restrooms at my workplace, and I'm sure most other workplaces, is steam blasted once a week with this big loud machine that makes the whole place smell like a urinal puck for a couple hours. I wouldn't have a problem flushing the toilet with my hand after that but not at any other time. It's amazing what people will do to public restrooms (men and women).

All this potty talk! Fact of the matter is lots of people get sick lots of the time and much of it is because of particles of Mr. Green's broth on the hands. Food production and handling procedures have changed because of this. That is not to say that these changes have or will have a positive effect on the industry. To me, the best food is food that is prepared by hand. If it were up to the government no food would ever touch human hands.

Jaze, I use my foot and will continue to - not because I'm afraid to touch the handle (I'm about to go wash my hands, after all), but because to flush the toilet with my hand, I must lean directly over the toilet. I just can't stomach the thought of all those microbes bursting from inside the toilet up into my face. I know I'm not completely avoiding them by flushing with my foot, but at least I'm not getting a direct hit.

I don't think this is a particularly beautiful product, but useful for the areas already mentioned - outdoor shower, art studio, greenhouse, etc. - where you're not particularly concerned about looks, want the soap to stay in one place, and aren't concerned about dripping.

I think the germ issue is nonsensical. It's soap, and it's not lying in a puddle of water. 'Nuff said.

What about this soap dispenser instead:
http://www.napastyle.com/store/product.jsp?sku=4313&cmCategoryId=S002

I also imagine it could be filled with anything liquid, p(too), you know, for those moments when you want something dispensed quickly and elegantly.

By the way, anyone else having flashbacks to soap-on-a-rope? They'd start off looking really cool (esp the ones shaped like R2D2 or Chewbacca) and wind up all cracked and grody-looking... I love the idea and am not afraid of germs, but I am afraid of having to pry the last wedges of hard soap off the holder, long after everyone has stopped using it because it looks crappy.

"kdka, you may be xenophobic, but MrGreen is not. Please leave him out of your "we"."

If you can employ the third person on MrGreen's behalf, I think I can use the collective. The "we" was merely a courtesy as I didn't want to single MrGreen out.

But since you insist...I'm not the one griping about bathroom germs and the job performance of the potentially non-English speaking individuals tasked with killing them. And I'm not the one making their job more difficult by putting my dirty feet on the toilet handle.

If the condition of public toilets disturbs people so much that they can't operate the equipment without exacerbating the problem, perhaps they should take their business to a more private commode.

Germs and other micro-critters aside, I simply don't understand why one would pay $40 for soap on a stick.

What do you do with the chrome holder after you're done? Do you just throw it away?

I'm just imagining a ton of drip-off goo accumlating at the bottom of this thing.

Please don't support unsustainable, environmentally-stupid ideas.

Now that I like Vita. Thanks for the link - I see two in my future!

jchan - I believe the refills are just the soap with a hole through it, to thread onto the rod. The only thing you're throwing away is the package.

Interesting, but no.
The chrome parts only look good while its dry and new.
Ever try to clean a soap dish made from chrome after the soap has been used several times?
I also agree with the others.
I guess that makes me a germ freak.

An article in today's NY Times seems to say that bar soap isn't so likely to get you sick.

Q. Does each member of the family need an individual bar of soap to prevent spreading germs, or do we have to switch to liquid soap?

A. Probably not, especially if the bar gets rinsed off between uses. A study published in 1988 in the journal Epidemiology and Infection concluded that washing even with contaminated bar soap is unlikely to transfer bacteria.

The study, done at the Dial Corporation Technical Center, said that while micro-organisms had recently been isolated from used soap bars, the findings of a low risk of cross-contamination were in agreement with two studies using different methodology.

In the 1988 study, prewashed and softened commercial deodorant soap bars were inoculated with E. coli and P. aeruginosa bacteria at levels 70 times as high as those reported on used soap bars. Then, 16 people were told to wash their hands as usual with the inoculated bars.

“After washing, none of the 16 panelists had detectable levels of either test bacterium on their hands,” the researchers wrote. “These findings, along with other published reports, show that little hazard exists in routine handwashing with previously used soap bars and support the frequent use of soap and water for handwashing.”

Okay, I'm late, but I just found this today. Personally I love how the thing looks, and didn't realize until I read the comments that it supposidely looks phallic or testicular or booblike (which is it, anyway?).

Jaze, I definitely agree with you that we're a nation of germophobes--but then you go on to say that you find flushing a public toilet with one's foot to be "unconscionable." Unconscionable? Shouldn't we reserve that word for acts that truly deserve it, like maybe murder, or boundless greed? Applying it to this instance seems a bit excessive (and yes, I use my foot, too--for the same reason greer gives--I step on the handle, then quickly turn my back).

I was going to buy this, but the thing that changed my mind was the chance that the soap could start looking funky over time (cracked, etc.)--not because I'm afraid of the germs!

I remember these things in gas station bathrooms in the late 50s (and maybe 60s, although I don't know). The ones I remember hung perpendicular to the floor, and the soap rotated on the hook--required no obscene jerking of any kind. Anyway--regarding cleanliness in public bathrooms--I'm an RN, and medical people are trained to shut off the water faucet with the paper towel you've just dried your hands with, and never to touch the faucet with your clean hands. I never touch the things. If I have to, I dispense the paper towels with my elbow. And never handle the door with your clean, bare hands, either; use a paper towel, the end of your shirt, anything but your hands. The best public bathrooms are the ones that PUSH on your way out, or have big open passages instead, such as in airports and rest stops. This isn't nutty behavior, it's basic infection control.