DiversityNursing Blog

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

www.medicalnewstoday.com 

A new study that offers insights into early language development suggests babies prefer listening to other babies rather than adults as they get ready to produce their own speech sounds.

The study, led by McGill University in Canada and published in the journal Developmental Science, observed the reactions of infants aged from 4-6 months who were not yet attempting speech, as they listened to baby-like and adult-like sounds produced by a voice synthesizer.

They found when the vowel sounds the babies listened to sounded more baby-like (for instance, higher pitch), the infants paid attention longer than when the sounds had more adult-like vocal properties.

Previous studies have shown that children at this age are more attracted to vocal sounds with a higher voice pitch, the authors note in their paper.

The team says the finding is important because being attracted to infant speech sounds may be a key step in babies being able to find their own voice - it may help to kick-start the process of learning how to talk.

They say the discovery increases our understanding of the complex link between speech perception and speech production in young infants.

It may also lead to new ways to help hearing-impaired children who may be struggling to develop language skills, they note.

Baby-like sounds held infants' attention nearly 42% longer

For the study, the team used a voice synthesizer to create a set of vowel sounds that mimicked either the voice of a baby or the voice of a woman.

They then ran a series of experiments where they played the vowel sounds one at a time to the babies as they sat on their mother's lap and listened. They measured the length of time each vowel sound held the infants' attention.

The results showed that, on average, baby-like sounds held the infants' attention nearly 42% longer than the adult-like sounds.

The researchers note that this finding is unlikely to be a result of the babies having a particular preference for a familiar sound because they were not yet producing those sounds themselves - they were not yet part of their everyday experience.

Some of the infants showed their interest in other ways. For example, when they listened to the adult sounds, their faces remained fairly passive and neutral. In contrast, when they heard the baby-like sounds, they became more animated, moved their mouths and smiled.

The following video shows how one of the infants - baby Camille, who is not yet babbling herself - reacts to the various sounds. Every time she looks away, the sound is replaced by another. Her reactions show which sounds she seems to like the most.

Babies need to 'find their own voice'

The researchers say maybe the babies recognized that the baby-like sounds were more like sounds they could make themselves - despite not having heard them before.

The findings may also explain the instinct some people have when they automatically speak to infants in baby-like, high-pitched tones, says senior author Linda Polka, a professor in McGill's School of Communication Disorders, who adds:

"As adults, we use language to communicate. But when a young infant starts to make speech sounds, it often has more to do with exploring than with communicating."

Prof. Polka says babies often try speaking when they are on their own, without eye contact or interaction with others. She explains:

"That's because to learn how to speak babies need to spend lots of time moving their mouths and vocal cords to understand the kind of sounds they can make themselves. They need, quite literally, to 'find their own voice.'"

Funds for the study came from the Natural Sciences Engineering and Research Council.

Meanwhile, parents and schools looking for ways to encourage children to eat more healthily may be interested in a study carried out among kindergarten through sixth-grade students at an inner-city school in Cincinnati, OH. There, researchers discovered that children found healthy food more appealing when linked to smiley faces and other small incentives. The low-cost intervention led to a 62% rise in vegetable purchases and a 20% rise in fruit purchases.

By AnneClaire Stapleton

www.cnn.com 

"I had my own personal tanning bed in my home, and so did a lot of my friends growing up. ... Everyone tanned," Willoughby said. "I didn't really even think about the future or skin cancer at the time." 

After one of her classmates in nursing school was diagnosed with melanoma, Willoughby made her first dermatology appointment at age 21. Sure enough, she had skin cancer.

Now 27, Willoughby says she has had basal cell carcinoma five times and squamous cell carcinoma once. She goes to the dermatologist every six to 12 months and usually has a cancerous piece of skin removed at each checkup.

She's become a cautionary tale about the hazards of tanning beds, thanks to a selfie she posted last month on Facebook. The grisly image, taken after one of her cancer treatments, shows her face covered with bloody scabs and blisters. It's since been shared almost 50,000 times.

"If anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in the tanning bed and sun here ya go! This is what skin cancer treatment can look like," she wrote in a post along with the photo. "Wear sunscreen and get a spray tan. You only get one skin and you should take care of it."

One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Exposure to tanning beds increases the risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, said the academy, which reports that more than 419,000 cases of skin cancer in the U.S. each year are linked to indoor tanning.

Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for adults 25-29 years old and the second-most common form of cancer for adolescents and young adults 15-29 years old, according to the academy. Warning signs include changes in size, shape or color of a mole or other lesion, the appearance of a new growth on the skin or a sore that doesn't heal. 

Risk factors for all types of skin cancer include skin that burns easily, blond or red hair and a history of excessive sun exposure, including sunburns and tanning-bed use -- dangers that the blonde, blue-eyed Willoughby now knows all too well. 

Willoughby, a registered nurse who now lives in northern Alabama, said she never expected the Facebook picture of her damaged face to go viral. 

But she's excited to think her story might save someone's life.

"I've lost count of how many people shared it now and told me I've helped them," she said. "It's really cool to hear people say they won't tan anymore. I've had mothers thank me after sharing my pictures with their daughters. People in my hometown said they are selling their tanning beds.

"I never thought about the future when I was in high school; I just tanned because it was normal to me." 

Willoughby knows she'll deal with the consequences of tanning for the rest of her life. She's at high risk for developing melanoma but is now doing everything she can to ensure that she's around for her husband, Cody, and their young son, Kayden, for years to come. 

"Learn from other people's mistakes," she wrote on Facebook. "Don't let tanning prevent you from seeing your children grow up. That's my biggest fear now that I have a two-year-old little boy of my own."

By SYDNEY LUPKIN

http://abcnews.go.com 

If not for a stranger halfway around the world, 8-year-old Grant Berg wouldn't be alive today, his mother said.

Grant needed a bone marrow transplant, but after an international search, it was an 18-year-old German college student who came to his rescue in 2011, Grant's mother, Kristi Berg told ABC News. And on Sunday night, Grant and his hero met for the first time at the Los Angeles International Airport.

"I've imagined it so often in my mind and now it is reality," Grant's bone marrow donor, Marvin Zumkley, 22, told KABC-TV, ABC's Los Angeles station. "It was crazy. It was overwhelming, and it was just a good feeling."

A year and a half before the transplant, Grant was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare but serious condition in which the bone marrow stops producing new blood cells, Berg said. This includes red blood cells, which carry oxygen; white blood cells, which fight off infection; and platelets, which mend blood vessels and stop bleeding, according to Dr. Hillard Lazarus, who directs UH Case Medical Center's novel cell therapy program in Cleveland but has not met or treated Grant.

"You need to treat this thing," Lazarus said, adding that it's often unclear what causes aplastic anemia. But only about 600 to 900 people are diagnosed with it every year.

Berg said Grant was getting different kinds of transfusions every week for a year and a half before the transplant.

"For a year and a half, he lived off other people's blood," Berg said. "I can't even count the amount of transfusions he had."

And then Zumkley's bone marrow changed Grant's life, she said. “It means everything to me," she added.

Grant was also born with only part of his cerebellum, so he'll be tested later this year for genetic conditions, she said.

After staying up well past his bedtime to meet Zumkley, Grant fell asleep in the car on the ride home to Temecula, California, Berg said. The plan is for Zumkley to relax for a few days, visit Disneyland and find other ways to enjoy southern California and get to know Grant, she said.

BY MAGGIE FOX

www.nbcnews.com 

Hospital workers wash their hands hundreds of times a day. Nurses are constantly using alcohol gels, chemical wipes and iodine washes on themselves and on patients.

Now that there's a hand sanitizer dispenser at every hospital room door, it's time to check that they actually do work as well as everyone assumes and that they are safe, the Food and Drug Administration says.

So FDA issued a proposed plan Thursday for reclassifying some of the products, and for requiring makers to show they are safe and effective.

"We're not asking for any of these products to come off the market at this time."

In the meantime. FDA says, there's nothing for consumers to worry about and hospitals should continue using the products as they have been.

"What it seems they are doing is good due diligence," says Dr. Susan Dolan of Children's Hospital Colorado and the Association of Professionals in Infection Control.

"They are trying to look at the products, look at how they are being used today, how things have changed," she added.

The FDA proposes new rules making companies submit new studies looking at safety issues such as whether heavy, chronic use of the some of the products may cause them to soak in through the skin, or cause resistant bacteria to evolve.

Products that are not shown to be safe and effective by 2018 would have to be reformulated or taken off the market.

"We're not asking for any of these products to come off the market at this time. We're just asking for additional data," Theresa Michele, a director in FDA's drug center, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "And we're likewise not suggesting that people stop using these products."

Alcohol, iodine benzalkonium chloride and other germ-killers have been used for decades. But not to the degree that they are now.

"Twenty years ago you didn't find people using antiseptic gels 100 times a day. It just didn't happen," Michele said.

FDA points to studies that show some of the products might be absorbed into the body at higher levels than previously thought, showing up in blood and urine. Dolan says not all the studies show this, but it's worthwhile doing more checks.

"It's timely and it makes sense," Dolan said. "I do think consumers should not be worried. These are very effective products."

The FDA last updated its review of health care hand cleaners in 1994.

"They are trying to look at the products, look at how they are being used today, how things have changed."

"We emphasize that our proposal for more safety and effectiveness data for health care antiseptic active ingredients does not mean that we believe that health care antiseptic products containing these ingredients are ineffective or unsafe, or that their use should be discontinued," FDA said in its announcement.

The agency agreed to complete its review after a three-year legal battle with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that accused the FDA of delaying action on potentially dangerous chemicals. In 2013 the FDA agreed to a legal settlement that included timetables for completing the review of various chemicals, including health care cleaners.

Environmentalists are mainly concerned about an ingredient called triclosan, which is used in most antibacterial soaps marketed to consumers. The agency issued a separate review of triclosan-containing consumer products in late 2013, saying more data are needed to establish their safety and effectiveness.

Written by Honor Whiteman

www.medicalnewstoday.com 

Infants born preterm are known to be at greater risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. Now, a new study by researchers from King's College London in the UK brings us closer to understanding why - premature birth reduces connectivity in brain regions linked to cognitive functioning.

First author Dr. Hilary Toulmin, of the Centre for the Developing Brain at King's College, and colleagues publish their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Preterm birth - defined as the birth of an infant before 37 weeks gestation - affected more than 450,000 babies in the US in 2012.

It is a leading cause of neurological disability among children in the US. Babies born preterm are at higher risk of cerebral palsy, autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), among other intellectual and developmental conditions.

For their study, Dr. Toulmin and colleagues set out to gain a better understanding of the brain connectivity among babies born preterm in an attempt to uncover clues as to why preterm babies are more likely to develop neurodevelopmental problems.

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the connectivity between two specific brain regions - the thalamus and the cortex - among 66 infants. Of these, 47 were born prior to 33 weeks gestation and 19 were born at full term - between 37 and 42 weeks gestation.

The team says they focused on the connectivity between the thalamus and the cortex because these are the brain connections that develop quickly during preterm infants' care in neonatal units.

Preemies showed reduced connectivity in brain area linked to higher cognitive functioning

Among the babies born at full term, the researchers found the connectivity between the thalamus and the cortex was very similar to that of adults, which the researchers say supports previous findings that infants are born with mature brain connections.

Among the preterm infants, however, the team identified reduced connectivity between areas of the thalamus and areas of the cortex associated with higher cognitive function. This may explain why preterm babies are at greater risk of neurodevelopmental problems later in childhood, say the researchers.

What is more, brain scans of the preterm infants revealed increased connectivity between the thalamus and an area of the primary sensory cortex that plays a role in processing signals from the face, lips, jaw, tongue and throat.

Preterm infants' earlier exposure to breastfeeding and bottle feeding may explain this finding, according to the team.

The team says the earlier a preterm baby was born, the more pronounced the differences were in brain connectivity.

Overall, the team believes their findings bring us a step closer to understanding why infants born preterm are at higher risk of neurodevelopmental problems.

Senior author Prof. David Edwards, also of the Centre for the Developing Brain at King's College, says modern science has allowed the team to assess brain connectivity among preterm infants - something he says would have been "inconceivable" only a few years ago.

"We are now able to observe brain development in babies as they grow, and this is likely to produce remarkable benefits for medicine," he adds.

Dr. Toulmin says the next steps from this research will be to gain a better understanding of how their findings are associated with learning and developmental problems among preterm children as they get older.

By STEPHANIE STROM

www.nytimes.com 

Acesulfame K. Ethoxyquin. Artificial smoke flavor.

The first, an artificial sweetener; the second, a preservative; and the third, a flavor enhancer, are just a few of the ingredients that Panera Bread wants to banish from its kitchens by the end of 2016.

In doing so, Panera would join the growing ranks of food companies and restaurants that have announced plans to eliminate a variety of artificial preservatives, flavors and colors, as well as different kinds of sweeteners and meat from animals raised with antibiotics, in response to consumer demands for transparency and simplicity in the foods they eat.

“We’re trying to draw a line in the sand in the industry so that consumers have an easy way to know what’s in the food they buy,” said Ron Shaich, chief executive of Panera.

In the last six months, at least a dozen food companies and restaurant businesses have announced plans to reformulate products to eliminate ingredients. “To me, this has gone way beyond anything that could even be remotely considered a fad and become a powerful trend,” said Carl Jorgensen, director for global consumer strategy focusing on wellness at Daymon Worldwide, a consulting firm.

Nestlé USA has said it will remove artificial flavorings and colors from its chocolate candy products, including brands like Butterfinger and Baby Ruth, as well as from Nesquik powdered drink mixes.

Hershey in December said it would work to replace high-fructose corn syrup in sweets like York peppermint patties and Almond Joy candy bars. Two months later, the company said it was moving to make all of its products from “ingredients that are simple and easy to understand.”

Kraft recently said it would replace the artificial colorings that give Macaroni and Cheese its orange hue with colors derived from spices like turmeric and paprika, and PepsiCo announced that it would use sucralose to sweeten Diet Pepsi instead of the artificial sweetener aspartame.

Last month, McDonald’s became the latest major restaurant chain to say it would no longer sell products made with chicken treated with human antibiotics. A few weeks later, Tyson Foods, a major meat company that is one of McDonald’s suppliers, said it would eliminate such antibiotics from its poultry and begin working to get them out of other meats as well.

Even Snackwell, which started its life as a brand with reduced fat, is undergoing a makeover aimed at getting rid of high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and artificial colors and flavors. “In this day and age, the consumer who was satisfied with reduced fat or fat-free 20 years ago is not satisfied with that any more,” said Vincent Fantegrossi, chief executive of the Back to Nature Foods Company, which is owned by Brynwood Partners, a private equity group.

Retooling an iconic brand is tricky. Companies must make sure that consumers cannot detect any change in taste, texture or quality, or all may be lost.

“That actually makes the challenge for companies like us that have well-known brands greater, compared to small companies that can simply make a product from scratch without these ingredients,” said Leslie Mohr, marketing manager for Nestlé USA’s confectionary business.

While most of the companies have been careful to say they are merely responding to consumer demands, not making a value judgment on such ingredients, they often face heavy criticism. Chipotle Mexican Grill’s announcement that it had eliminated genetically modified ingredients from the foods it makes — though, like Panera, not from the sodas it sells — evoked a torrent of outraged responses.

The Washington Post editorial board called Chipotle’s move a “gimmick” that was “hard to swallow,” while NPR’s popular food blog, The Salt, accused the company of having a double standard for adopting sunflower oil, which it said was often treated with a pesticide known for weed resistance.

“This is a complicated issue, and I would suggest there is less here than meets the eye,” said L. Val Giddings, a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Mr. Giddings noted that although General Mills got a lot of publicity for eliminating genetically modified ingredients from original Cheerios, those were just a tiny part of the cereal’s ingredients. “I think what they were doing at least in part was testing the water to see if they could capitalize on it, and what they have found is pretty illuminating,” he said. “The move had no impact on sales.”

Mr. Shaich said Panera’s decision to come up with what it calls “The No No List” had more to do with protecting the sales it has. The list is based on research and standards developed by Johns Hopkins, the Environmental Working Group, the Natural Resources Defense Council and various European governments.

“I’m not a scientist and I’m not wading into the debate over whether any of these things cause cancer or are otherwise bad for you,” he said. “I just think this is where the consumer’s head is right now.”

Panera uses more than 450 ingredients to prepare its foods. The company had to work with both its suppliers and their suppliers, who themselves were not always sure whether their products contained the ingredients Panera has decided to eliminate.

“These ingredients have been added over time to improve efficiency and consistency and as preservatives as supply chains have gotten longer and longer,” said Sara Burnett, senior quality assurance manager at Panera.

Solutions are not always perfect. Panera is rejecting titanium dioxide, a whitener commonly used in products like ice cream and icings, from its mozzarella, yet cheese browns as it ages. “We don’t know how customers will react,” Ms. Burnett said.

Salad dressing proved the menu item most difficult to reformulate, she said, in part because different oils impart specific viscosity and taste. For Greek salad dressing, Panera had to take apart the spice mix it used and go back to the basics — lemon juice, garlic, oregano and rosemary.

“We learned we don’t have to have these things on the list,” Ms. Burnett said, “so why have them?”

www.npr.org 

Over the last week, Baltimore's unrest has captured the nation's attention. Images of burning cars, the sounds of angry protesters and then peace rallies have dominated the airwaves and headlines.

As the city's health commissioner, I heard other stories. I spoke with a 62-year-old woman who had a heart attack a year ago and who had stopped taking her blood pressure and blood-thinning medications. Her pharmacy was one of the dozen that burned down, and neither she nor the other people in her senior housing building could figure out where to get their prescriptions filled. Her pills ran out two days before, and she'd planned to hold out until the pharmacy reopened.

A 55-year-old man called our health department. His mother was "stringing out" her inhalers and now had a cough and difficulty breathing. He also told us he had difficult-to-control diabetes and was using insulin every other day. He now was urinating frequently and reported blurry vision — symptoms of out-of-control diabetes. We called an ambulance to transport them both to the ER.

In the wake of fires and violence, the initial priority for health officials was to make sure that our acute care hospitals were protected and that staff and patients could get to them safely. In the immediate aftermath, our focus was on ensuring that injured patients got triaged and treated.

Nobody knew what lay ahead and how much more violence was to be expected. We worked with hospitals, the Fire Department, and other city and state partners to develop a hospital security plan and to convene daily phone calls with every hospital and health clinic.

As the days went on, we heard from more Baltimoreans. These were not the ones waving signs or appearing on national TV. These were people who were just trying to get by.

There was a 74-year-old woman who had abdominal pain for two days. She stayed in her apartment and put up with the pain rather than seeking care, because she thought she'd heard that her health center was closed. A middle-aged couple worried about their 22-year old son who was suffering from a manic episode. They didn't know who was available to help.

Our health department, under the leadership of Mayor Rawlings-Blake, worked with the Maryland health department and private partners around the city and state to provide these essential services. We set up the Baltimore Healthcare Access List to provide up-to-date and accurate information about closures and hours of operation for hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. We developed and implemented a Mental Health/Recovery Plan that included an around-the-clock mental health crisis line along with teams of licensed mental health professionals who were deployed in affected neighborhoods for group counseling and debriefing.

Things that seemed straightforward often were not. Transferring prescriptions from one pharmacy to another would seem easy. But what happens if the pharmacies are in different chains, or if the one that closed was an independent pharmacy where all records were destroyed? The nearest pharmacy may be just a few blocks away, but what if the patient has limited mobility and even a few blocks are prohibitive?

And, as we saw, what happens when the best-laid plans aren't known to residents? We arranged for individuals affected by pharmacy closures to call one central number — 311. Our health department team would then take care of the rest on a case-by-case basis, arranging for prescription transfers, transportation and medication delivery.

Amid all the news, our public health information wasn't getting through to all our community members. So we mobilized student volunteers from Johns Hopkins and other local universities to go door-to-door in all senior buildings in affected neighborhoods. We visited over 30 churches and knocked on hundreds of doors.

It is now a week after the initial wave of violence and unrest. Our city is quieter, but our work is nowhere near done. As we look to rebuilding and recovery, our efforts must be focused on addressing the needs of all those affected, including the ones whose stories we don't usually hear.

By FREIDA FRISARO

http://abcnews.go.com 

One morning last summer, Tony Smith slipped a multicolor tutu over his scrubs in the pre-op ward of a South Florida hospital to grant the wish of a young patient heading to surgery.

A photo of the tutu-clad Smith quickly became a hit online and within weeks, Tutu Tuesday was born at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital.

"That day, it was all about making a patient feel comfortable. Having me put on the tutu made her feel better," said Smith, an operating room assistant who has worked at the Hollywood, Florida, hospital for almost five years. "I never knew I would have that much impact. I didn't expect it to go viral."

But it did. Once employees saw the shot, they started asking Lotsy Dotsy — resident clown and unofficial keeper of the tutu — for their own frilly skirts to wear. Department by department, hospital staff adopted Tutu Tuesday.

It begins outside the hospital named for a baseball legend, where visitors are greeted by a valet whose tutu clashes with his normal uniform — shorts and a baseball jersey.

"People laugh and ask why I'm wearing a skirt," said John Aristizabal, who takes good-natured kidding as he parks cars. "It's all for the kids, to catch a smile."

On Tutu Tuesday, smiles are contagious.

Inside the hospital, tutus are everywhere. Doctors, nurses, technicians and receptionists don the colorful layers of tulle, decorated with polka dots and fancy bows as they go about the business of tending to patients. Even Nutmeg, the in-house therapy dog, has a specially designed pink tutu. Hospital administrators also play along, wearing tutus over their business suits.

Smith said he could have never imagined that such a simple act would catch on.

"It's for the patients," Smith said. "Just seeing you in a tutu brightens their day, and it can keep them from thinking about what's really going on."

That's exactly what pediatric anesthesiologist Dr. Bob Kaye has been doing for years. He's worn a variety of funny hats and wigs to help ease the fears of his young patients. Now he's added a tutu to his routine and has found that his patients and their parents like the distraction.

"If you can dress in a way that it not threatening and silly, maybe, and make the medical professional look not like the last person who gave them a shot in the doctor's office, then it's a lot easier to feel comfortable with them," he said. "I think it's an ice breaker."

On a Tuesday morning in March, Laurel Barnett and her 13-year-old daughter Julia arrived about 5:45 a.m. for surgery.

"Of course, not having any coffee and then coming in and seeing everyone in tutus is quite amusing," Barnett said. "It's not what you expected to see. It does give children a sense of relief that these people are not only here to help them, but there to have fun as well. It kind of takes their mind off of things."

Smith says he's not bothered at all by the stares and giggles as he makes his way through the hospital's corridors every Tuesday. He even offered his tutu to 12-year-old Brayden Wilmsmeyer, who along with his 10-year twin sisters Leah and Lexi spent spring break getting respiratory treatment at Joe DiMaggio.

The twins had borrowed tutus from two nurses for an impromptu photo session.

"Remember, you are a real man," Smith told Brayden as he pulled the tutu over his pants. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise just because you're wearing a tutu."

www.foxnews.com 

After roughly 40 years, U.S. health regulators are seeking data to see if the cocktail of ingredients in antiseptics used in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes are as safe and effective as they were once considered.

The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it is asking manufacturers for more data, including on absorption, potential hormonal effects and bacterial resistance of thehe 'active' ingredients in antiseptics, to see if they are still appropriate for use in a health care setting.

Since the review of health care antiseptics in the 1970s, things have changed, the FDA noted, alluding to a shift in frequency of use, hospitals' infection control practices, technology and safety standards. (1.usa.gov/1EUrzCd)

An independent panel of experts to the FDA raised similar concerns last year. In 2013, the regulator issued a warning to manufacturers, saying it was aware of at least four deaths and multiple infections caused by over-the-counter antiseptics. (1.usa.gov/1DNxOSp)

Commonly used active ingredients in health care antiseptics include alcohol and iodine. Data suggests that, for at least some of these ingredients, the systemic exposure is higher than previously thought, the agency noted.

"We're going to try to answer their questions in great detail as called for, but we believe the FDA already has sufficient data on these products," said Brian Sansoni, a spokesman for American Cleaning Institute (ACI), a trade association for the cleaning products industry.

The FDA said no health care antiseptics were going to be pulled off shelves as of now, and that their review excluded home-use antiseptics such as antibacterial soap and hand sanitizers.

The new data request relates only to health care antiseptics covered by the over-the-counter monograph, a kind of "recipe book" covering acceptable ingredients, doses, formulations and labeling. Once a final monograph is implemented, companies can market their product without having to go through the FDA.

Companies will have one year to submit the data, which the FDA will evaluate before determining if the OTC monograph needs to be revised.

"We're concerned if the FDA takes maybe a too narrow view regarding the safety and effectiveness data – depending how the final rule ends up – they could take effective products or ingredients off the shelves," Sansoni said.