Makers of talc powder ‘hid risks of asbestos’
Traces of cancer-causing substance ‘found in 1971’
‘One-sided, false and inflammatory’
A GLOBAL consumer goods firm has been accused of covering up the fact its talc products contained deadly asbestos. Johnson & Johnson knew since at least 1971 that products including its baby powder contained traces of asbestos which can cause cancer, according to an investigation by the Reuters news agency.
The US company is facing thousands of lawsuits from customers claiming its talc products were to blame for their cancer.
It has been forced to share thousands of pages of company documents, which, according to Reuters analysis, show that the raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos.
The documents also reportedly show that executives, mine managers, scientists, doctors and lawyers worried about the problem while failing to reveal it to regulators or the public.
References to asbestos in J&J’s products date back as far as 1957 and 1958, when fibres were found in test results. Lab reports yielded similar findings all the way into the early 2000s, the documents showed.
In 1976, when watchdogs at the Food and Drug Administration were looking into asbestos in cosmetic products, J&J insisted no asbestos was ‘detected in any sample’ of talc produced between December 1972 and October 1973. But an analysis of internal documents by Reuters showed that at least three tests from 1972 to 1975 had found asbestos in its talc, and in one cases the levels were described as ‘rather high’.
J&J’s lawyer Peter Bicks told Reuters in an email: ‘The scientific consensus is that the talc used in talc-based body powders does not cause cancer, regardless of what is in that talc. This is true even if – and it does not – Johnson & Johnson’s cosmetic talc had ever contained minute, undetectable amounts of asbestos.’
Mr Bicks said the tests cited by Reuters were ‘outlier’ results, and in court J&J argued some documents referred to industrial talc products. The World Health Organization currently recognises no safe level of exposure to asbestos. Some people may develop cancer after just a short exposure to the mineral, while others may never fall ill.
Cases against J&J which have already been heard in court have had mixed success. In two cases earlier this year, in New Jersey and California, juries awarded big sums to plaintiffs blaming asbestos-tainted talc products for their mesothelioma – a rare form of lung cancer.
A third verdict in St Louis saw 22 claimants succeed with their claim that asbestos in Baby Powder and Shower to Shower talc caused ovarian cancer, which is much more common. J&J has said it will appeal against these verdicts.
A legal spokesman for J&J added: ‘Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder is safe and asbestosfree. The Reuters article is onesided, false and inflammatory. Simply put, the Reuters story is an absurd conspiracy theory.’
Baby Powder was first produced by J&J in 1893, after the firm noticed mothers using it on their babies’ nappy rash.
The Reuters probe focused on the US, but its findings raise questions surrounding its products sold around the world. The report wiped almost €41.5billion off J&J’s value yesterday.