Those tests, however, did not use the most sensitive detection methods. Soon, mothers began applying the talc to infants’ diaper-chafed skin. That point is recognized in a 2013 markup of a statement for the “Safety & Care Commitment” page of J&J’s website. J&J’s effort to protect its iconic Baby Powder franchise by shaping research was led by physician and scientist executives. Nutribiotic Natural Body & Foot Powder. It didn’t tell the agency that at least three tests by three different labs from 1972 to 1975 had found asbestos in its talc – in one case at levels reported as “rather high.”. This cancer link has been found in women who have used the product for perineal hygiene. Sanchez did not return calls seeking comment. It also found no mesothelioma, the signature cancer of asbestos exposure. Our most popular products based on sales. Imerys and J&J said the Chinese talc is safe. Get it as soon as Wed, Mar 24. J&J didn’t tell the FDA about a 1974 test by a professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire that turned up asbestos in talc from J&J – “fiberform” actinolite, as he put it. This hypoallergenic powder is free of parabens, phthalates, dyes or sulfates that may harm your child’s skin and is clinically proven to be gentle and mild on sensitive skin. “We didn’t have it.”. Read the documents cited in this article, After damaging Reuters report, J&J doubles down on talc safety message. Could it happen to us? In fact, among the thousands of documents Hobson’s request could have turned up was a letter J&J lawyers had received only weeks earlier from a Rutgers University geologist confirming that she had found asbestos in the company’s Baby Powder, identified in her 1991 published study as tremolite “asbestos” needles. The persistence of the industry’s view that cosmetic talc is asbestos-free is why no studies have been conducted on the incidence of mesothelioma among users of the products. The company also periodically requires the more sensitive checks with electron microscopes. A subsequent analysis of the underlying data published in 1988 determined that at least one of the workers died of mesothelioma, the cancer most closely associated with asbestos. “The attached letters demonstrate responsibility of industry in monitoring its talcs,” the cover letter said. At a meeting on Sept. 27, 1974, for a “Talc/powder Safety Studies Review,” he reported the Italian study would dispel the “cancer concern associated with exposure to talc.”, The following spring, Hildick-Smith got a draft of the Italian study from the lead researcher. Johnson's Baby Powder for Delicate Skin, Hypoallergenic and Free of Parabens, Phthalates, and Dy… It’s quite possible that we may wish to keep the whole thing confidential rather than allow it to be published in patent form and thus let the whole world know.”, While Shelley was looking into the patents, J&J research director DeWitt Petterson visited the company’s Vermont mining operation. Hammondsville mine records, according to a 1993 J&J memo, “were destroyed by the mine management staff just prior to the J&J divestiture.”. Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters, The article that appeared in 1976 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reported results even better than J&J had bargained for. Any suggestion that Johnson & Johnson knew or hid information about the safety of talc is false.”. !OPEN ME!! She knew it was as rare as it was deadly, a signature of exposure to asbestos. In 1886, Robert Wood Johnson enlisted his younger brothers in an eponymous startup built around the “Safety First” motto. In 2002 and 2003, Vermont mine operators found chrysotile asbestos fibers on several occasions in talc produced for Baby Powder sold in Canada. He also said that today, J&J’s X-ray scans can detect suspect minerals at levels as low as 0.1 percent of a sample. Darlene Coker knew she was dying. It sent tons of its Italian talc to a private lab in Columbus, Ohio, to find ways to improve the appearance, feel and purity of the powder by removing as much “grit” as possible. In July 1971, meanwhile, J&J sent a delegation of scientists to Washington to talk to the FDA officials looking into asbestos in talcum powders. Coker held on long enough to see her two grandchildren. The group said the more sensitive electron microscopy was impractical.  J&J pressed the FDA to approve an X-ray scanning technique that a company scientist said in an April 1973 memo allowed for “an automatic 1% tolerance for asbestos.” That would mean talc with up to 10 times the FDA’s proposed limit for asbestos in drugs could pass muster. Many were shielded from public view by court orders that allowed J&J to turn over thousands of documents it designated as confidential. Much of their contents is reported here for the first time. He told the New York Times that the agency’s investigation a decade earlier had prompted the industry to ensure that talc was asbestos-free. That approach was summed up by a J&J applied research director in a “strictly confidential” March 3, 1975, memo to managers of the baby products division, which used the talc in J&J’s signature Baby Powder. $9.89 $ 9. A small portion of the documents have been produced at trial and cited in media reports. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. That’s one of the six minerals that in their naturally occurring fibrous form are classified as asbestos. I recommend against it because of the risk of respiratory problems. In a memo, a J&J lab supervisor said the concentration technique, which the company’s own researchers had earlier used to identify a “tremolite-type” asbestos in Vermont talc, had one limitation: “It may be too sensitive.”, “No mother was going to powder her baby with 1% of a known carcinogen irregardless of the large safety factor.”. Having failed to persuade the FDA that up to 1 percent asbestos contamination was tolerable, J&J began promoting self-policing as an alternative to regulation. Most of the talc cases have been brought by women with ovarian cancer who say they regularly used J&J talc products as a perineal antiperspirant and deodorant. Baby Powder Talc Free - USDA Certified Organic Dusting Powder for Excess Moisture & Chafing That’s Actually Good for Your Skin- Non Toxic, Non-GMO, Cruelty Free Era-Organics. That’s why he zeroed in on Johnson’s Baby Powder after he took on Darlene Coker as a client in 1997. That was in 1999. Apply powder close to the body away from child’s … The FDA declined to comment on the ruling. Neem has anti-inflammatory properties which protect a baby’s skin from rashes, inflammation. He wrote that talc in general, if subjected to the most sensitive testing method, using concentrated samples, “will be hard pressed in supporting purity claims.” He described this sort of testing as both “sophisticated” and “disturbing.”, Actress Blair Brown touts Baby Powder in this 1970s-era TV commercial, By 1977, J&J appeared to have tamped down concerns about the safety of talc. “So in subsequent analyses,” he told the paper, “we really could not identify asbestos or only on very rare occasions.”. He said the agency’s policing of cosmetics in general – fewer than 30 people regulating a “vast” industry – was “a place where we think we can be doing more.”, Gottlieb said the FDA planned to host a public forum in early 2019 to “look at how we would develop standards for evaluating any potential risk.” An agency spokeswoman said that would include examining “scientific test methods for assessment of asbestos.”. The Link Between Talcum Powder and Cancer Before it came in, J&J asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that Coker had “no evidence” Baby Powder caused mesothelioma. Coker had no choice but to drop her lawsuit, Hobson said. The author was Hildick-Smith, the J&J physician executive who had overseen the Italian study and played a key role in the company’s talc safety research. She knew that her cancer, mesothelioma, arose in the delicate membrane surrounding her lungs and other organs. Since pulmonary disease, including cancer, appeared to be on the rise, “it would seem to be prudent to limit any possible content of Tremolite … to an absolute minimum,” came the reply from another physician executive days later. The documents also depict successful efforts to influence U.S. regulators’ plans to limit asbestos in cosmetic talc products and scientific research on the health effects of talc. One official called it “foolish,” adding, according to a J&J account of a February 1975 meeting: “No mother was going to powder her baby with 1% of a known carcinogen irregardless of the large safety factor.”. Others have failed to reach verdicts, resulting in mistrials. !Hey guys! I show you how to make your own homemade baby powder using ingredients from your pantry. Selikoff died in 1992. The original version conveyed a blanket assurance of safety. If you or a loved one were diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using baby powder for feminine hygiene, you … Most patients die within a year of diagnosis. “This is all a calculated attempt to distract from the fact that thousands of independent tests prove our talc does not contain asbestos or cause cancer. She died in 2009, 12 years after her diagnosis, at age 63. While most people exposed never develop cancer, for some, even small amounts of asbestos are enough to trigger the disease years later. “When people really understand what’s going on, I think it increases J&J’s exposure a thousand-fold,” said Mark Lanier, one of the lawyers for the women in the St. Louis case. On June 29, 1971, Kretchmer informed the Nixon administration and called a press conference to announce that two unidentified brands of cosmetic talc appeared to contain asbestos. Coker’s daughter Crystal Deckard was 5 when her sister, Cady, was born in 1971. “J&J respectfully disagrees with the Judge’s comments,” Bicks said. “J&J did not withhold any relevant testing from FDA.”. When applied to the skin, it can help prevent rashes and other skin irritations like chafing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for example, “makes no distinction between fibers and (comparable) cleavage fragments,” agency officials wrote in a response to an RJ Lee report on an unrelated matter in 2006, the year before the firm hired Sanchez. Two decades later, the material Coker and her lawyer sought is emerging as J&J has been compelled to share thousands of pages of company memos, internal reports and other confidential documents with lawyers for some of the 11,700 plaintiffs now claiming that the company’s talc caused their cancers — including thousands of women with ovarian cancer. No asbestos was detected. J&J says cosmetic talc is more thoroughly processed and thus purer than industrial talc. RJ Lee said it does not comment on the work it does for clients. “I said to myself, ‘How come it took so long?’ ” he said. Talcum powder, also commonly referred to as baby powder is linked to ovarian cancer. In the morning, just shake out the baby powder or you can even leave it in for really bad odors. Hobson agreed to postpone his discovery demands until he got the pathology report on Coker’s lung tissue. What J&J produced in response to those demands has allowed plaintiffs’ lawyers to refine their argument: The culprit wasn’t necessarily talc itself, but also asbestos in the talc. But in an April 9, 1969, memo to a company doctor, Ashton said it was “normal” to find tremolite in many U.S. talc deposits. Baby powder is an inexpensive and effective way to keep your baby happy by preventing diaper rash, chafing, and irritation. Bottle - 2 Pack, Anti-Monkey Butt Anti Friction Powder, Original & Lady, Johnson's Baby Powder, 50 Gram / 1.7 Ounce (Pack of 8) International Version, Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. Coker sued Johnson & Johnson, alleging that “poisonous talc” in the company’s beloved product was her killer. “Historically, in our Company, Tremolite has been bad,” Ashton wrote. Children under 2 years: C hange wet and soiled diapers promptly, cleanse the diaper area, and allow to dry. Bicks told Reuters that J&J believes that the tremolite and actinolite Petterson cited were not asbestos. At the time, J&J’s Baby Powder franchise was consuming 20,000 tons of Vermont talc a year. “I have it in the back of my mind all the time. The CTFA, which now does business as the Personal Care Products Council, declined to comment. It had not done so as of Thursday evening. 3 Ounce (Pack of 1) 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,761. Choose from contactless Same Day Delivery, Drive Up and more. Coker, 52 years old, had raised two daughters and was running a massage school in Lumberton, a small town in eastern Texas. J&J’s expert witnesses have concluded the opposite. “It is quite possible that eventually tremolite will be prohibited in all talc,” Shelley wrote on Feb. 20, 1973, to a British colleague. Hammondsville was the primary source of Baby Powder talc from 1966 until its shutdown in 1990. Johnson & Johnson developed a strategy in the 1970s to deal with a growing volume of research showing that talc miners had elevated rates of lung disease and cancer: Promote the positive, challenge the negative. "Plaintiffs’ attorneys out for personal financial gain are distorting historical documents and intentionally creating confusion in the courtroom and in the media,” Ernie Knewitz, J&J’s vice president of global media relations, wrote in an emailed response to Reuters’ findings. J&J got a lot of mileage out of the study. The Johnsons took note. X-ray scanning is the primary method J&J has used for decades. Though a private lab in Chicago found trace amounts of tremolite, it declared the amount “insignificant” and the samples “substantially free of asbestiform material.” J&J reported that finding to the FDA under a cover letter that said the “results clearly show” the samples tested “contain no chrysotile asbestos.” J&J’s lawyer told Reuters the tremolite found in the samples was not asbestos. Until recently, the American Cancer Society (ACS) accepted the industry’s position, saying on its website: “All talcum products used in homes have been asbestos-free since the 1970s.”, After receiving inquiries from Reuters, the ACS in early December revised its website to remove the assurance that cosmetic talcs are free of asbestos. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency continues to receive a lot of questions about talc cosmetics. Langer said he told J&J lawyers who visited him last year that he stood by all of his findings. Coker never learned why she had mesothelioma. “She wanted answers,” her daughter Cady Evans said. “I suppose I was antagonistic,” Langer told Reuters. In a Sept. 6, 1974, letter, J&J told the FDA that since “a substantial safety factor can be expected” with talc that contains 1 percent asbestos, “methods capable of determining less than 1% asbestos in talc are not necessary to assure the safety of cosmetic talc.”, Not everyone at the FDA thought that basing a detection method on such a calculation was a good idea. J&J has said it will appeal the recent verdicts against it. Two years later, the FDA rejected a citizen request that cosmetic talc carry an asbestos warning label, saying that even if there were trace contamination, the use of talc powder during two years of normal diapering would not increase the risk of cancer. By the early 1970s, asbestos was widely recognized as the primary cause of mesothelioma among workers involved in producing it and in industries that used it in their products. “How bad is Tremolite medically, and how much of it can safely be in a talc base we might develop?”. Plant-based and completely natural, this baby powder without talc keeps skin dry. The method is not designed to detect the most commonly used type of asbestos, chrysotile, at all. J&J’s original records don’t always make that distinction. In terms of health risk, regulators since the early 1970s have treated small fiber-shaped particles of both forms the same. She just wanted to know why. The FDA’s own examinations found no asbestos in J&J powder samples in the 1970s. “I recognize the concern,” he told Reuters. Facing thousands of lawsuits alleging that its talc caused cancer, J&J insists on the safety and purity of its iconic product. Johnson & Johnson is abandoning a product that it may be most identified with and has been selling for more than 100 years -- talc-based baby powder. The evidence of what J&J knew has surfaced after people who suspected that talc caused their cancers hired lawyers experienced in the decades-long deluge of litigation involving workers exposed to asbestos. J&J has also argued that some tests picked up “background” asbestos – stray fibers that could have contaminated samples after floating into a mill or lab from a vehicle clutch or fraying insulation. Apply powder liberally as often as necessary, with each diaper change, especially at bedtime, or anytime when exposure to wet diapers may be prolonged. Instead, in 1976, a 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. Get your gloves off. However, while J&J’s testing methods improved over time, they have always had limitations that allow trace contaminants to go undetected – and only a tiny fraction of the company’s talc is tested.