Antibacterial soaps don’t seem to add any germ-killing power to plain old soap and water and in fact may have some health risks, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.

So the agency is proposing a new rule that would force soap makers to prove that products with added antibacterial ingredients such as triclosan are safe and effective —something certain to be highly controversial.

They'll have a year to prove it, the FDA says. And they're encouraging public comment, too.

"To put it simply, we need to collect additional information from the companies that make these products so that consumers can be confident about their effectiveness and about their safety," the FDA's Dr. Sandra Kweder told reporters in a telephone briefing.

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