Johnson & Johnson Shunned Sensitive Asbestos Testing Methods For Decades

Johnson & Johnson was able to hide the facts about talc asbestos contamination from the public by adopting an insensitive asbestos testing protocol

Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - Johnson & Johnson, Revlon, Clubman, Colgate Palmolive, and many other manufacturers of cosmetics and personal health care products have failed to warn consumers of what they knew for decades. Industry insiders knew that talc, the main ingredient in baby care powder and makeup products, was contaminated with asbestos and that asbestos causes cancer. Asbestos testing methods that were available to the FDA over fifty years ago are now in use by the US Food and Drug Administration and other microscope researchers. Scientists have found asbestos in nearly every sample of talc they have taken from Baby Powder and cosmetics products sold at Claire's stores, a retailer popular with teenage girls. Scientists and experts agree that products made from talc, like Baby Powder and makeup sold to women and children in retail stores and over the internet, should be recalled and future sales banned. Executives at Johnson & Johnson and the cosmetics industry have known since the early 1970s that talc was probably contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen as per an investigation conducted a couple of years ago by Reuters. Women with ovarian cancer and men and women with mesothelioma have filed lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson for deliberately targeting them with advertising after the company knew about their asbestos problem. Talcum powder cancer lawyers offer a no-obligation review for individuals seeking compensation for their alleged talcum powder-related cancer.

Talc is found adjacent to and sometimes striated with asbestos in mines around the world. This makes separating the two naturally occurring minerals is nearly impossible. Talc and asbestos are similar, and deposits occur very near each other. Industry insiders covered up what they knew about asbestos contamination by setting talc/asbestos testing levels ridiculously high so that the probability of finding asbestos was nearly zero. KYR News told readers concerned about the safety of their health care products, that dangers are lurking in their medicine cabinet. "In 1976, the Beauty, Toiletry, and Fragrances Affiliation (CTFA) applied pointers that concluded "all talc utilized in beauty merchandise in the US must be free from detectable quantities of asbestos," The operative word being detectable. The New York Post also investigated the way that the cosmetics industry was able to get around reporting what they knew about asbestos and talc contamination for decades. In an article titled, "How Johnson & Johnson hid its Baby Powder asbestos problem" the Post wrote, "In 1976, a Beauty, Toiletry, and Fragrances Affiliation (CTFA) committee chaired by a J&J executive drafted voluntary guidelines, establishing a form of X-ray scanning with a 0.5 percent detection limit as the primary test, the method J&J preferred. The method is not designed to detect the most commonly used type of asbestos, chrysotile, at all. The group said the more sensitive electron microscopy was impractical." The CFTA is now the Personal Care Products Council.