What is happening to the legendary Baby Powder?

20 May 2020

BBC has reported that the healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson is to stop selling its talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in the US and Canada. It has been alleged that the product contains traces of asbestos, a known carcinogen that causes cancer. Whereas the company claimed that its testing had found no traces of asbestos in its product after the tests have been conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration. At the same time, the firm is facing thousands of lawsuits from consumers who claim that its talc products cause cancer.  

However, Johnson & Johnson expressed that they are confident in the safety of the talc-based Baby Powder. They have claimed that decades of independent scientific studies by medical experts around the world supported the safety of our product. The company is consistently defending the safety of its talc products.

The firm at present is facing more than 16,000 consumer lawsuits. The firm but, alleged that the move was the part of a reassessment of its consumer products prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. The move comes after years of litigation where Johnson & Johnson had been ordered to pay out billions of dollars in compensation; BBC reports.

The fact as informed by the company that the demand for Johnson’s Baby Powder had been declining in North America was due to the larger changes in consumer habits and also due to the fuelling by misinformation around the safety of the product. Johnson & Johnson, in fact, said it would wind down sales of the product in the coming months and allow the retailers to sell their existing inventory.

BBC reports that the firm is appealing against a 2018 order to pay $4.7bn (£3.6bn) in damages to 22 women who alleged that its talc products caused them to develop ovarian cancer.