Johnson & Johnson to stop talc baby powder sale in US, Canada after multiple lawsuits

Johnson & Johnson has decided to discontinue its talc-based baby powder products in the United States and Canada after a significant drop in sales following several lawsuits. The company faces over 19,000 lawsuits from consumers alleging the product was contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen, which caused cancer.

J&J said the company made a “commercial decision” to discontinue the sale of talc-based items in the US and Canada and will wind it down over the coming months. Kathleen Widmer, chairman of the company’s North America consumer unit, reportedly said that the sake of existing inventory will continue through retailers until supplies run out.

Earlier, the company had said in a statement that the talc litigation has caused confusion and concern about the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder. J&J has maintained that Baby Powder has been a trusted product for more than 100 years, and decades of independent scientific evaluations have repeatedly confirmed that it does not cause cancer. J&J asserted that not a single professional organisation or regulator has concluded that there is scientific evidence to the claims of causation between talc and ovarian cancer.

“The most recent published cohort study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, pooled a number of high-level epidemiological studies and found no statistically significant increased risk of ovarian cancer with talc use,” said the company in a statement.

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'Major victory for public health'

Raja Krishnamoorthi, US House Representative who led the Congressional inquiry into the J&J product, called the company’s decision a major victory for public health. Krishnamoorthi said that his subcommittee’s 14-month investigation revealed that Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that its product contains asbestos, and the company fought to keep using a testing method that never would have allowed it to be detected.  

“Today’s victory means that children and families no longer will be endangered by this baby powder,” said the Congressman.

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(Image: AP)