Dial is an American brand of
soap
Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...
,
body wash and
hand sanitizer
Hand sanitizer (also known as hand antiseptic, hand disinfectant, hand rub, or handrub) is a liquid, gel, or foam used to kill viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms on the hands. It can also come in the form of a cream, spray, or wipe. W ...
manufactured by
Henkel North American Consumer Goods, the American subsidiary of
Henkel AG & Co. KGaA. It was the world's first
antibacterial
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention ...
soap.
History
Dial emerged as a result of a collaborative effort by a team of accomplished chemists that worked at
Armour and Company, with
Emmett Patrick Glynn as a key contributor.
In 1948, their creation made its debut in the Chicago market as a product of
Armour and Company, a well-established meat-packing company.
Armour had produced soap since 1888; its laundry soap
was made from
tallow, a by-product of Armour's meat production processes. Dial was made antibacterial by the addition of
hexachlorophene,
referred to by the company as AT-7.
The product was named Dial and claimed to provide "round-the-clock" protection against the
odor
An odor (American English) or odour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is a smell or a scent caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds generally found in low concentrations that humans and many animals can perceive ...
caused by
perspiration
Perspiration, also known as sweat, is the fluid secreted by sweat glands in the skin of mammals.
Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and Apocrine sweat gland, apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distribu ...
.
Dial was introduced nationally in 1949 and was advertised as "the first active, really effective deodorant soap in all history
ecause itremoves skin bacteria that ''cause'' perspiration odor".
Although researchers had never established a link between hexachlorophene and germ protection, Armour's early advertisements graphically depicted germs and microbes before and after use of Dial soap.
, the active ingredient in Dial, was removed from the consumer market and strictly limited in the hospital setting in the early 1970s amid reports that it caused neurological damage in infants. When the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
(FDA) outlawed its use in non-medicinal products, Armour-Dial replaced it with
triclocarban, a synthetic antibacterial compound.
Dial became the leading deodorant soap brand in the U.S.
From 1953 until the mid-1990s, Dial soap was advertised under the slogan "''Aren't you glad you use Dial? (Don't you wish everybody did?)''".
In September 2016, the FDA ruled that antibacterial soaps containing triclocarban and
triclosan can no longer be marketed.
Dial replaced these ingredients with
benzalkonium chloride (for bar soaps) and
benzethonium chloride (for liquid hand soaps). In its 2016 ruling, the FDA also stated that it is deferring the final rule on benzalkonium chloride, benzethonium chloride and
chloroxylenol by a year to allow for the development and submission of new safety and effectiveness data for these ingredients. Consumer antibacterial washes containing these specific ingredients may be marketed during this time while data is being collected.
References
External links
Dial Soap website{{Henkel
Soap brands
Products introduced in 1948
Henkel brands
Dial Corporation brands