U.S. health officials proposed banning an ingredient used in popular oral decongestants, a step toward removing dozens of cold medicines from store shelves.The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed removing the ingredient,

The FDA says oral phenylephrine, used in many over-the-counter cough and cold medicines, "is not effective as a nasal decongestant."

The FDA is proposing many popular over-the-counter cold and allergy medications be removed from store shelves. The agency says a common ingredient they share, phenylephrine, doesn’t actually relieve nasal congestion.

The US Food and Drug Administration has proposed to remove oral phenylephrine, widely used in cold and cough syrups, as an active ingredient in over-the-counter drugs for nasal congestion, stating it is not effective,