DeLauro in a letter to CEO Gorsky: “By concealing any notion of potential asbestos contamination of its baby powder, Johnson & Johnson violated that trust and placed millions of lives at risk.”
As a survivor, DeLauro marks Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month with a call on Johnson & Johnson to remove dangerous talc-based powder linked to ovarian cancer from the marketplace
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Chair, today sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky demanding that all remaining containers of their talc-based baby powder be taken off the shelves. Additionally, she called for Johnson & Johnson to halt all marketing and sales of this product around the world, specifically to women of color.
According to a Reuters investigation, for decades Johnson & Johnson ignored warnings that their product contained asbestos, a group 1 carcinogen. As these concerns grew, internal Johnson & Johnson documents show the company targeted its marketing to people of color and overweight women. Despite halting sales in the United States earlier this year, Johnson & Johnson has allowed retailers to sell leftover inventory and announced it will continue to sell talc-based baby powder in other parts of the world, including countries with majority black and brown consumers.
In her letter, DeLauro wrote, “An internal Johnson & Johnson memo from the early 1990’s details the targeted marketing of this dangerous product to black, brown, and overweight women. Despite being warned decades ago by its own supplier that the talc contained ‘carcinogens,’ the company ignored the warning and purposely put profits above the lives of its customers, specifically women of color… According to Reuters, Johnson & Johnson ‘distributed Baby Powder samples through churches and beauty salons in African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, [and] ran digital and print promotions with weight-loss and wellness company Weight Watchers.”
As an ovarian cancer survivor, DeLauro sent this letter during Ovarian Cancer Month to draw attention to the women who developed ovarian cancer after prolonged use of Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based baby powder.
“By concealing any notion of potential asbestos contamination of its baby powder, Johnson & Johnson violated that trust and placed millions of lives at risk,” DeLauro continued. “Johnson & Johnson must commit to globally recalling its talc-based baby powder, as well as working to educate women and minority women about the dangers of talc-based cosmetics.”
The full text of the letter is below. A PDF copy is available here.
Dear Mr. Gorsky:
I write with grave concern over Johnson & Johnson’s failure to fully address the decades-long public health risks posed by marketing its talc-based baby powder which has been shown to contain asbestos, a group 1 carcinogen. The company’s continued refusal to broadly recall and remove this dangerous product from the marketplace is yet another fateful decision that endangers the lives of millions of people, especially women.
In December 2018, a Reuters investigation[1] reviewed internal company documents to discover Johnson & Johnson was aware that samples of its baby powder had occasionally been found to contain asbestos. According to Reuters, Johnson & Johnson misled the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about this asbestos detection and “didn’t tell the agency that at least three tests by three different labs from 1972-1975 had found asbestos in its talc – in one case at levels reported as ‘rather high.’”
More recently, the FDA alerted consumers in October 2019 to stop using Johnson & Johnson baby powder from a specific lot number after the agency discovered a sample from that lot number to be contaminated with asbestos. While this alert did cause Johnson & Johnson to initiate a narrow voluntary product recall of the specific lot number, the results from the FDA along with the company’s own testing records suggest this was more than just an isolated incident.
Instead, researchers have long held that talc becomes contaminated with asbestos through the mining process. According to the American Cancer Society[2], “in its natural form, some talc contains asbestos.” Additionally, the FDA warns[3] “during talc mining, if talc mining sites are not selected carefully and steps are not taken to purify the talc ore sufficiently, the talc may be contaminated with asbestos.”
Importantly, FDA’s own testing of cosmetic products, as well as its legal authority over them, is limited. To date, FDA’s testing of cosmetic products has only included a survey of 50 products, and full test results from this survey have yet to be issued by the agency[4]. Additionally, according to existing law, cosmetic products, including those containing talc, can go on the market without a requirement for FDA review or approval, and cosmetic companies are not required to share information regarding product safety with the agency.
Thus, when it comes to cosmetics, consumers are left to trust the goodwill and integrity of the companies marketing these products. By concealing any notion of potential asbestos contamination of its baby powder, Johnson & Johnson violated that trust and placed millions of lives at risk.
An internal Johnson & Johnson memo from the early 1990’s details the targeted marketing of this dangerous product to black, brown, and overweight women. Despite being warned decades ago by its own supplier that the talc contained “carcinogens,” the company ignored the warning and purposely put profits above the lives of its customers, specifically women of color. In 2006, Johnson & Johnson was warned by the World Health Organization that cosmetic talc, including baby powder, was “possibly carcinogenic” to humans. As before, Johnson & Johnson rejected the warning and stepped up its marketing to minority communities. According to Reuters[5], Johnson & Johnson “distributed Baby Powder samples through churches and beauty salons in African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, ran digital and print promotions with weight-loss and wellness company Weight Watchers and launched a $300,000 radio advertising campaign in a half-dozen markets aiming to reach ‘curvy Southern women 18-49 skewing African American.’”
As reported by The New York Times[6], Johnson & Johnson “has faced thousands of lawsuits from cancer patients who claim that its talc was contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen, and that the company knew of the risks.” A majority of these patients are women with ovarian cancer. These court challenges coincide with the company’s May 2020 announcement that it would discontinue sales of its talc-based baby powder in North America. However, retailers were allowed to sell leftover inventory and the product is undoubtedly on some consumers’ shelves. Even more concerning, the company has continued to sell talc-based baby powder in other parts of the world, including countries with majority black and brown consumers.
Johnson & Johnson must commit to globally recalling its talc-based baby powder, as well as working to educate women and minority women about the dangers of talc-based cosmetics.