The pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) will suspend the sale of baby powder worldwide from 2023, two years after doing so in the US and Canada, hounded by thousands of complaints about the safety of the product. The product will also cease to be marketed in Argentina.
The company said it made the "business decision" to substitute cornstarch for talc in this children's product after receiving some 38,000 lawsuits linking long-term use to cancer, though it continued to deny that's the cause.
At the end of 2018, information appeared indicating that J&J had known for decades that its talcum powder contained asbestos, a mineral with composition and characteristics similar to those of asbestos and with harmful effects on health.
Since then, J&J has faced thousands of lawsuits accusing the manufacturer of having contributed to the development of ovarian cancer in consumers, an extreme that the company denies and that each year has caused it to spend millions of dollars in litigation.
In June of last year, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to study an appeal filed by the pharmaceutical company and thus confirmed a sentence to pay 2,100 million dollars in damages for the sale of talc manufactured with products carcinogenic.
The company had already received another resounding conviction in 2018 when a jury in the State of Missouri ordered it to pay 4.7 billion dollars to 22 women who claimed that it caused ovarian cancer. An appeals court reduced that amount two years later but still said the company had "knowingly sold asbestos-containing products to consumers. "
The company is also facing other legal problems in the US and agreed earlier this year to pay millions of dollars to several states, along with other large drug distributors, for their responsibility in the opioid crisis.
Johnson & Johnson Statement:
"Our position on the safety of our cosmetic talc remains unchanged. We strongly support the decades of scientific analysis by medical experts around the world that confirm that Johnson's Baby Talcum Powder is safe, contains no asbestos, and does not cause cancer," declared the firm this Friday in a statement.
“As part of a global product portfolio review, we have made the business decision to move to a range of baby powder based solely on cornstarch. As a result of this transition, Johnson's baby powder will no longer be manufactured internationally in 2023," the company said.
