A widely used antiseptic to clean hospital patients’ skin can remain on surfaces for hours, creating breeding grounds for bacteria to become tolerant or gain resistance to chemicals that usually kill them, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

In the study, researchers tracked bacteria with tolerance to chlorhexidine, a chemical applied to patients’ skins before surgery or catheter insertion. They searched for these bacteria in an Illinois medical center’s intensive care unit (ICU), according to Life Science Plus.

Researchers swabbed 219 samples from bedrails, nurse call buttons, door sills, keyboards, light switches, and sink drains in six locations around the ICU in 2018. The rooms were clean, but the researchers isolated about 1,400 bacteria, and 36% showed some tolerance to chlorhexidine.

In the lab, researchers applied chlorhexidine to common materials, such as plastic, metal, and laminate, and tracked how long the antiseptic lingered on surfaces, including after cleaning with water and other chemical cleaners. They found that even after cleaning, traces of the antiseptic persisted on surfaces for at least 24 hours.

These lingering traces weren’t strong enough to kill bacteria. But in these microenvironments, bacteria that carry genes helping them survive the chemical’s effects thrive. These tolerant bacteria outcompete those lacking tolerance genes and grow more abundantly. The worst-case scenario is that bacteria become so used to fighting off a chemical and so good at it that they become resistant to its effects.

The researchers found chlorhexidine-tolerant bacteria throughout the hospital rooms, even though the antiseptic was applied only to patients’ skin. The sink was a hotspot for these bacteria. Swabs also showed tolerant strains on door sills, suggesting they traveled through the air and settled there.

Some of the antiseptic-resistant bacteria carried a plasmid — a small DNA loop that can be transferred between bacteria — that not only helped them tolerate chlorhexidine but could also help them resist antibiotics, such as carbapenems. This type of gene transfer is a well-known way that bacteria gain resistance to antimicrobials, and it can take place between bacteria of totally different species.

Still, chlorhexidine is highly effective at killing germs. The bacteria in the study could survive only at very low concentrations of the chemical, far below levels used to clean patients’ skin. However, the researchers agreed that the world should be more cautious in using antiseptics. Further studies should examine whether these effects occur in other settings, such as homes or veterinary clinics, to better understand how antiseptic residues affect bacteria, the researchers said.

Last year, global employee perceptions of the job market improved, according to Gallup, following a decline the previous year. The 2026 State of the Global Workplace report finds that in 2025, job market perceptions improved globally by one percentage point from the previous year to 52%.

The 2025 increase in job market optimism came entirely from nonremote-capable, fully on-site workers, while optimism dropped for fully remote and remote-capable, fully on-site workers.

However, job market optimism fell sharply last year in the United States and Canada. The United States/Canada region is now second-to-last in regional job market rankings. Since 2019, this region has fallen 23 points, from 70% to 47%.

U.S. business media reported on a “no hire, no fire” job climate for most of 2025, Gallup said. More recent revisions to official jobs numbers also found that the U.S. added only 181,000 jobs last year, down from the 1.5 million the year before.

When employees feel they have a choice in their work, Gallup found they are nearly 50% more likely to say it’s a good time to find a job. This belief holds across every region of the world. As technologies like artificial intelligence reshape the world of work, upskilling will likely be an essential part of employee hope for the future.