Johnson & Johnson under pressure to stop global sale of talc-based baby powder

Baby care products conglomerate Johnson & Johnson is under immense pressure to halt the sale of its talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder worldwide. More than 170 nonprofit organisations have urged the American multinational to halt its sales citing concerns that the baby powder contains cancer-causing asbestos, as per the statement from advocacy group Black Women for Wellness. Several prominent groups have also appealed to J&J to recall their existing products which have been on the shelves in North America.

However, J&J had said in May that it would stop selling talc-based Baby Powder in the US and Canada due to low demand. It opined that the demand had fallen due to misinformation about its product’s safety beside many of legal battles the company is fighting. But the company asserted that it would continue to sell the products in the rest of the world where it sees a good demand.

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“Decades of independent scientific studies by medical experts around the world support the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” J&J said in a statement.

“We continue to offer this product in many other regions around the world where there is higher consumer demand,” it added.

The US-based Conglomerate has many legal cases against its product by customers and survivors who claimed that its talc products caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos, a known carcinogen and that the company knew for decades about it. However, the company has maintained that its decision to suspend sales in North America is not due to the said issue.

Besides, the company is also facing an anti-racial slur as the executive director of Black Women for Wellness, Janette Robinson Flint said in a statement that J&J’s continues to market its products especially the baby powder in international markets and often to Black and Brown consumers contradicting its own statement of June which said that J&J commits to fight against racial injustice.

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