Soap Industry

Johnson & Johnson's brands include numerous household names of medications and first aid supplies. Among its well-known consumer products are the Band-Aid Brand line of bandages, Tylenol medications, Johnson's baby products, Neutrogena skin and beauty products, Clean & Clear facial wash and Acuvue contact lenses. Robert wood johnson, inspired by a speech by antisepsis advocate Joseph Lister, joined brothers James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson to create a line of ready-to-use surgical dressings in 1885. The company produced its first products in 1886 and incorporated in 1887.

A declaration made by the U.S. upon its ratification of the 1949 Geneva Conventions includes a reservation that pre-1905 U.S. domestic uses of the Red Cross, such as Johnson & Johnson's, would remain lawful as long as the cross is not used on "aircraft, vessels, vehicles, buildings or other structures, or upon the ground", uses which could be confused with its military uses. This means that the U.S. did not agree to any interpretation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that would overrule Johnson & Johnson's trademark. Even as it disputes a recent lawsuit by Johnson & Johnson, the American Red Cross continues to recognize the validity of Johnson & Johnson's trademark.

Hamam is a brand of soap made in India and marketed by Hindustan Lever Limited, the Indian unit of Unilever. The name comes from the Arabic/Persian/Hindi word Hammam which refers to a public bathing establishment in the middle-eastern countries. It was launched in 1934 and is a leading product in its category. Soap is an anionic surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning that historically comes in solid bars but also in the form of a thick liquid.

Soap, consisting of sodium (soda ash) or potassium (potash) salts of fatty acids is obtained by reacting fat with lye in a process known as saponification. The fats are hydrolyzed by the base, yielding alkali salts of fatty acids (crude soap) and glycerol. Sand or pumice may be added to produce a scouring soap. The scouring agents serve to remove dead skin cells from the surface being cleaned. This process is called exfoliation. Many newer materials are used for exfoliating soaps which are effective but do not have the sharp edges and poor size distribution of pumice.