J&J knew ‘for decades’ of asbestos in baby powder, Reuters reports

According to a Reuters examination of documents for some of the 11,700 plaintiffs now claiming that Johnson & Johnson’s talc caused their cancers, J&J knew for decades that asbestos had been found in its talc products, that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, the company’s raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos, and that company executives, mine managers, scientists, doctors and lawyers fretted over the problem and how to address it while failing to disclose it to regulators or the public. Johnson & Johnson failed to tell the FDA that at least three tests by three different labs from 1972 to 1975 had found asbestos in its talc — in one case at levels reported as “rather high,” Reuters reports. In response to Reuters’ findings, Ernie Knewitz, J&J’s vice president of global media relations, wrote that “This is all a calculated attempt to distract from the fact that thousands of independent tests prove our talc does not contain asbestos or cause cancer. Any suggestion that Johnson & Johnson knew or hid information about the safety of talc is false.”
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