If you are a parent, Johnson & Johnson products will be a staple at your home. As a woman, you’ll vouch for the soft, white talc on your private parts - it’s perfect in keeping them dry and odour-free.
What could be more wholesome than talcum powder?
Exactly why the recent verdict against Johnson & Johnson, requiring the company to pay $72 million in damages to the family of a woman whose death the plaintiffs claimed is linked to her use of J & J’s Shower to Shower, will startle you.
With my own own cabinet well stocked with Johnson’s baby care and personal care products, I’m left wondering: How dangerous is talcum powder? Will it give my family cancer? What do I need to do to be safe?
Does Talcum Powder Really Cause Cancer?
The debate on this has been rumbling on for decades but the scientific community is still divided on it - and the matter is made more complex by the fact that there are several different types of talcum powders.
What Is Talc?
Back in the day, when powder first came it generally contained talc, a naturally occurring mineral made of magnesium, silicone and oxygen.
It was mined from the soil and, before 1973, was often contaminated with asbestos - a close neighbour in the ground. Now asbestos is known to cause cancer in and around the lungs when inhaled.
Post 1973, when the cancer connect was established, health watchdogs in the United States ordered that talc be removed from all products sold or manufactured within the country.
What Do Medical Studies Say about It?
According to the American Cancer Society, one prevailing theory is that in women, small mineral particles of talc could travel up the fallopian tubes and ovaries, inflaming the tissue, which can encourage cancer growth. But no major study has examined how talc might cause cancer, only if there is an elevated risk associated with its use.
The American Cancer Society further observes, a majority of studies suggesting the talcum powder and cancer connect were found to be flawed and often relied on people who previously used talc that could have contained asbestos.
The doctors I spoke to insist there is no need to stress, the studies which find a cancer link with talcum powder are all old studies, that’s before the removal of asbestos from talc, that have left doubts in people’s minds.
No matter what a jury in Missouri found, if you’ve been using talcum powder in your underparts, you should not start panicking. From a scientific perspective, the evidence against talcum powder is shaky at best.Dr Ruhi Dawra, Gynaecologist
The debate over talcum powder’s safety is likely to continue - long-term use of talc can promote inflammation and that could be the plausible mechanism which promotes cancer, but since ovarian cancer is in itself very uncommon, the use of talc will only be a very small-ish risk factor.
Back To the Question - What Should You Do?
Read the label carefully - opt for a starch-based, talc-free product for a non-controversial alternative - or simply, skip the powder altogether. The jury is still out on talc but given all the cancer ramble on it, why not err on the side of caution?
So Why Did J&J Lose a Multi-Million Dollar Suit?
Before her death, 62-year-old Alabama resident, Jackie Fox, claimed her ovarian cancer had been caused by the company’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products, which she used for feminine hygiene purposes for 35 years.
A pathologist reportedly found her ovaries were inflamed from talc which then turned into cancer.
The scientific evidence linking talcum powder to ovarian cancer is not overwhelming, but the trial saw a 1997 internal memo from a medical consultant employed by Johnson & Johnson that suggested that “anybody who denies [the] risks” between “hygienic” talc use and ovarian cancer would be publicly perceived in the same light as those who denied a link between smoking cigarettes and cancer.
J & J is expected to appeal to this order.
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