Talc Industry Lobbying Under Scrutiny Following Congressional Oversight Hearings
Lawmakers are looking into how lobbying by the talc industry affects public health policy
Thursday, August 7, 2025 - Congressional oversight committees have started a fresh round of investigations into how the talc business lobbied, which raises issues about how corporate power may have slowed down regulation and protections for public health. These hearings are happening at a time when there is more and more proof that industry groups have been working behind the scenes for decades to change scientific stories, lower regulatory standards, and avoid stricter oversight. This is happening even though health concerns about talcum powder's possible link to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma have been growing louder. The main focus of the investigation is internal documents that were recently made public through a talcum powder cancer lawsuit. These records supposedly demonstrate that talc manufacturers and related trade groups worked together to try to sway federal agencies and scientific advisory committees. Now, lawmakers are looking into whether lobbyists from the cosmetics business helped shape regulations at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), such as putting off testing for asbestos in talc or making it harder for the public to see statistics about bad events. Critics say that these strategies put making money ahead of public health and may have stopped timely warnings about the dangers of talc from getting to consumers.
Several lawmakers talked about the amount and complexity of lobbying activity during recent sessions. One member of the oversight committee called the talc industry's strategy "aggressive and well-funded," pointing out that they spent millions of dollars on lobbying campaigns that downplayed new research that raised concerns about product safety. Lobbyists are said to have met with agency officials on a regular basis and paid for expert panels that came to results that were good for the industry. Many of these opinions were eventually used in court to defend talcum powder against cancer accusations. One of the main things that people are worried about is that scientists may have been paid to produce research that minimized or ignored the health dangers of using talc, frequently without saying that they had a conflict of interest. People often sent these findings to government organizations or published them in academic publications, which changed how people thought about them and affected policy decisions. Lawmakers want to know exactly how these studies were used in regulatory reviews and if any federal rules were made based on inaccurate or biased information.
After the hearings, public health activists have once again called for changes in how scientific research is funded and made public, especially in areas that have a big impact on health and the law. They say that the talc issue shows how important it is to have tougher laws about conflicts of interest, better protections for whistleblowers, and scientific review mechanisms that are not affected by the industry. Talcum powder cancer lawyers are very interested in the results because they see them as more proof that industry pressure kept key safety warnings from getting out. The hearings could potentially lead to additional lawsuits, especially if it comes to light that firms willfully kept information from consumers that could have kept them safe. There have already been more than 60,000 cases filed across the country. Many of them say that long-term usage of talc in the vaginal area caused ovarian cancer or breathing problems connected to asbestos exposure.
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