Officials with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released its final rule about over-the-counter consumer antiseptic wash products that include specific active ingredients.
According to the ruling, these soaps are no longer marketable; companies that create these soaps won’t be allowed to market these products because the producers didn’t prove the safety and efficacy of the ingredients compared to plain soap and water. There is no evidence that these products inhibit the spread of illness and various infections.
In light of this rule, some of the manufacturers have started to eliminate these ingredients from all of their products. There are 19 active ingredients that the FDA included in the list. The two most commonly known are triclocarban and triclosan.
The ruling from the FDA does not apply to consumer hand wipes, sanitizers or antibacterial products that health care professionals use.
"Consumers may think antibacterial washes are more effective at preventing the spread of germs, but we have no scientific evidence that they are any better than plain soap and water," Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said. "In fact, some data that suggests antibacterial ingredients may do more harm than good over the long term."
