Ticonderoga Antibacterial Pencils with Microban

With all the talk of Swine Flu, H1N1, and the boogie man, I couldnt pass up the opportunity to take a look at these Ticonderoga antimicrobial pencils that I saw at OfficeDepot which you can also pick up at Amazon.  Normally I dont even like to use pencils as I’ve said before, but I feel like that shouldn’t limit the office supplies that I review.

Not to make this review a rant on other things, but the idea of these Ticonderoga antimicrobial pencils does seem a little bit overboard to me.  When I saw these pencils I just needed something to use with the gripsharp pencil sharpener, so I figured I would grab them since they looked interesting.  Usually when I’m in search of cool office supplies to review, Im online and I have a chance to do a little research before I commit to buying them.  With an impulsive purchase such as this, I raelly didn’t have that opportunity until I got them home.

After doing the gripsharp review, I started looking around for some more information on these, and it was hard to find anything.  Further digging and researching the Microban name did however lead to some interesting information though.  According to the site supereco, the FDA has classified Triclosan, the active ingredient in Microban, as a pesticide.  Obviously manufacturers of products that use it claim its safe though.

I’m not a scientist, so I wont sit here and tell you that something is or isn’t good for you, or that it will or won’t kill germs.  I will tell you one thing though, and that is that washing your hands is a fantastic idea.  Something about the push to rub chemicals all over every household item we have just doesnt seem right, especially when common sense and good basic hygiene can be just as effective, if not more effective.

My non-scientific opinion here is that if you want to make sure your kids, or you yourself don’t pick up some germs at work or at school, wash your hands with warm water and regular soap, get a good nights sleep, and eat a healthy diet.  Don’t let manufacturers of office supplies or other products convince you that the way to go is lathering up everything with chemicals and relying on a quick and easy shortcut to protect you from the Swine Flu or some other virus or epidemic.  Another lesson learned here (and thankfully a cheap one at only around $3.00) do some research BEFORE you buy something.  Apologies for this pseudo-review, but I just thought it was an interesting item to stumble over and thought I’d share my thoughts on these Ticonderoga antimicrobial pencils.

One last thought about these Ticonderoga antimicrobial pencils.

Labeling your product The Worlds Best Pencil doesn’t make it true, because if things were that easy, there would be a new banner at the top of this site that said “Worlds Best Office Supplies Blog” and Id recommend that if you want a really awesome pencil, try the Uniball Kuru Toga mechanical pencil, but just wash your hands every now and then between uses.

NOTE: Some of you may have seen the version of the image with the text directly on the picture of the Ticonderoga antimicrobial pencils.  That was only reserved for one particular blog that insists on continuing to steal all of my content scraped completely from my RSS feeds, and thrown up as their own.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.