THE NEVER-ENDING TALC STORY

Linda and niece Ella

maybe ten years ago

Johnson and Johnson is one of the largest consumer-goods companies in the world.  It is a component of the Dow Industrial index.  It has been here, grinding out useful commodities since your mother was a little girl.  It makes lots of good stuff, but I’ll bet it fervently wishes that it had never made talcum powder!

Talcum powder basically is a powdered form of the mineral talc, the softest natural substance in the inorganic world.  Talc is a hydrothermal metamorphic rock that forms, often in great abundance, at many places in the world.  Talc is used in a huge number of industrial processes.  One form of talc, known as soapstone, is dear to the hearts of stone carvers.  Talc clearly is useful; the burning question obviously is: should it be used as a form of baby powder?

One suspicious problem with talc as a baby powder is that it forms under very similar conditions as does asbestos, and frequently in the same region.  Asbestos and talc have very similar structures.  Asbestos, as you know, is a nasty carcinogen.  J&J insists that its baby powder is, and has been, asbestos free.

Even occasional readers of this blog will be aware that J&J has been sued repeatedly over recent years on the charge that their baby powder causes ovarian cancer.  The charge is that it is the talc itself that is to blame, and not any accidental admixture of asbestos.  The science on this claim is indeterminate at present, but enough suspicion remains to underpin my advice:  leave the stuff on the shelf, and use corn starch instead.

J&J has stated repeatedly that there is no asbestos in their product.  Now, however, nosy newsmen have turned up evidence that this may be untrue.  J&J is calling “foul”.  My take is that if J&J officials really knew that there was even trace amounts of asbestos they all should be marched outside and shot.  The case is far from closed, however, but in the meantime: DON’T USE TALCUM POWDER!

And sell your JNJ stock.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/johnson--johnson-asbestos-scandal-13735166