Sometimes, what we think is healthy for us turns out not to be so.

“As a mother of two teenage boys I was always buying antibacterial soap, ” said Kristin Thames, a registered nurse at the Cure concierge in Malibu, California. “But after doing my own research, I have found this to be more harmful to them.”

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She said she believed the soap would prevent her sons — both compulsive nail-biters when they were growing up — from getting sick from virulent bacteria and viruses. 

“We live in a very bacterial world, and our immune system is designed to fight against bad bacteria,” she said.

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Thames is right in line with recent announcements from the Food and Drug Administration. After 42 years of research, the scientists at the FDA announced that manufacturers will have to prove that antibacterial soaps do not pose health risks, or they will have to remove the products from store shelves. The deadline is next year.

So far, the companies have produced nothing that shows antibacterial soaps are safer than regular soap.

The most common ingredient in antibacterial soap is a sanitizing chemical called triclosan. But research on triclosan shows it can interfere with normal hormones in animals and spur the growth of drug-resistant bacteria. It also has damaging effects on the environment, disrupting photosynthetic processes for a number of plants.

Related: The Cost of Resistance

But you probably shouldn’t wait until next year to ditch antibacterial soap.

Here are three reasons why:

1.) Antibacterial soaps create mutated bacterial strains that are resistant to medicine. Joanna Griffin, a biologist at a waste-water treatment plant in St. George, Utah, works with bacteria every day.

“Bacteria has a bad connotation,” she said. “Not all bacteria is bad. Our bodies are filled and covered with bacteria that are beneficial to our health.”

But chemicals like triclosan kill all the different kinds of bacteria and create an overly sanitized environment that can have negative effects on your health.

Wash your hands with regular soap and water for at least 30 seconds, and you will wash away harmful bacteria.

“Antibacterial soap stresses the bacteria,” Griffin said. “And if the bacteria isn’t killed off completely, it can mutate from the stress and become resistant to the antibiotic in the soap.”

The most widely known example of this kind of mutation is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA. It’s a bacterium immune to standard antibiotics like penicillin and can cause boils on the skin and toxic shock syndrome. MRSA has been given limited endemic status and has been difficult to control. Several studies have hinted that triclosan may be fueling this type of resistance among different types of bacteria.

2.) Antibacterial soaps weaken your immune system and could disrupt normal hormone levels. Children who are exposed at an early age to a wide range of germs and bacteria actually have a lower risk of developing respiratory problems like asthma, according to recent studies. Dust and dirt from farms may actually help children develop immunity to certain allergens.

“Antibacterial soaps are especially overused in regards to babies and children,” Griffin said. “This is an important stage of life when their bodies are developing an immune system. Antibacterial soaps stunt this development.”

But it isn’t just weakened immunity you’re risking. Studies of rats, frogs, and other animals show triclosan may interfere with the thyroid hormone. Scientists believe triclosan may resemble the hormone so closely that it actually binds to the receptor sites. If this is the case, triclosan could contribute to serious health problems such as infertility, obesity and cancer.

3.) Regular soap and water are just as effective at getting things clean. The manufacturers of antibacterial soaps have shown that triclosan kills a higher amount of bacteria than other types of sanitizers. But this doesn’t translate into real health benefits. Antibacterial soaps have no effect on the viruses that cause seasonal colds and flus, according to the FDA, and the soaps do not reduce the chance of respiratory or gastrointestinal infections.

Related: Insulin Resistant, Infection Prone

“I suspect there are a lot of consumers who assume that by using an antibacterial soap product, they are protecting themselves from illness,” Sandra Kweder, deputy director of the FDA drug center, told the Associated Press when the FDA announced the change in policy. “But we don’t have any evidence that is really the case over simple soap and water.”

Soap isn’t meant to kill the germs on your hands. Microbes collect on your skin from a variety of places (your cellphone is a big contributor).

These microbes stick to the oil your skin naturally produces, and soap helps break down these oils. When you rub your hands together, the friction pulls the germs off your skin.

“As long as you wash your hands with regular soap and water for at least 30 seconds,” Thames said, “you will wash away harmful bacteria from your skin.”

In the end, public health officials agree: The conventional hand-washing wisdom is still the best way to keep clean.