The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is banning the use of an active ingredient commonly found in hospital antiseptic products, according to an article on the Modern Healthcare website.

In its action, the FDA cited safety and efficacy concerns, but the ban won't begin for a full year.

The new rule requires makers of hand washes, hand rubs, surgical hand scrubs, surgical hand rubs, and patient antiseptic preoperative skin preparations to reformulate their products without the ingredient triclosan, a chemical that has been associated with health risks and a possible contributor to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Twenty-four ingredients were cited as being "not generally recognized as safe and effective" by the FDA in its ruling, and they will be banned from the over-the-counter healthcare antiseptic product market effective Dec. 20, 2018. According the FDA, manufacturers have already stopped using 23 of the active ingredients cited in the rule with the exception of triclosan. 

Read the article.