3 major cosmetic giants abandon talc in some products

With the increasing number of cancer cases in the United States, consumers’ concerns about product safety have gradually increased. Three beauty brands, Chanel, Revlon and L'Oréal, have begun to stop using talc in some of their products. .

According to reports, due to the public's negative perception of mineral ingredients, Chanel has now removed the talc powder from one of its facial powder products, and launched another talcum powder containing talcum powder. In addition, Revlon has now removed the talc powder from its body products, and L’Oréal is looking for a substitute for the mineral component.

Talcum powder caused cancer caused multiple lawsuits

Talc powder is used in thousands of cosmetics and personal care products to absorb moisture in products, prevent caking and increase smoothness. However, because talc powder sometimes coexists with strong carcinogen asbestos in the rock, there are potential safety hazards. There have been tens of thousands of lawsuits against cancer among users. As early as 2013, Johnson & Johnson (Johnson & Johnson), a personal care giant in the United States, was prosecuted for cancer caused by talc.

In 2019, the major supplier of talc powder from Johnson & Johnson Group, Imerys Talc America and related companies (Imerys Talc Vermont and Imerys Talc Canada) filed for bankruptcy protection due to the inability to deal with the huge indemnities brought by the lawsuit (for details, see the previous report of Hualizhi: Weak In response to 15,000 lawsuits related to carcinogenesis of talc powder, the main talc powder supplier of Johnson & Johnson applied for bankruptcy protection). Johnson & Johnson also announced last month that it will stop selling products containing talc in the United States and Canada.

The last time the Bausch brand sold products containing talc powder in February 2019, the brand has been mentioned in 165 lawsuits; securities filing shows that 12 of them have not yet been judged. Avon, which declined to comment on litigation issues, said in a confidential document that there are also 128 lawsuits pending against the brand for products containing talc.

In 2018, Chanel was also prosecuted for cancer caused by talc. At that time, a California woman claimed that she had mesothelioma, partly because she used the talcum powder of Chanel brand and Johnson & Johnson brand containing asbestos for decades. It is understood that asbestos is the only recognized and confirmed cause of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare, incurable malignant tumor that affects the intima of the lungs and other organs.

Chanel spokesman Amy Wyatt denied in the testimony that Chanel loose powder products contained asbestos. She said: "We fully know that this is a safe product, but in view of the public's views on talc and its suspicions about its safety, we decided to withdraw this product from the market." She also said that apart from this In addition, Chanel also removed the talc powder component from its loose powder, but she is not sure when this new formula will be marketed, nor has she revealed what other ingredients the brand has used to replace talc powder.

However, Chanel will continue to use talc powder in other products, including powder cakes, blushes and eyeshadows. The brand said that all the talc powder it uses is "selected according to strict purity standards, fully in line with the current global Regulations, and in terms of standards for the use of cosmetics, it is absolutely safe." The company did not answer any questions about termination or litigation. More brands began to deactivate talc

In addition to Chanel, other brands are also reducing the use of talc. A Revlon spokesperson said they have removed talc from its body products. He refused to disclose when or why he started, and he declined to comment on the lawsuits he received.

L'Oreal said it is looking for a substitute for talc, but has not yet found any viable alternative. A spokesperson for L'Oréal said in an email: "As we all know, there are indeed some alternatives for the use of talc. We will continue to explore and seriously consider these alternatives, but so far no product can achieve the same The same properties of products containing talc."

She said that L'Oreal, like other companies, has always required its suppliers to test and certify that its talc powder does not contain asbestos, and is also conducting internal tests. She said: "We have not detected any asbestos in any product containing more than 20% talc."

Many other nursing companies have also stopped selling products containing talc. German brand Beiersdorf said that since 2018, the brand has used corn starch instead of talc in Nivea's baby powder products. Bausch Health also adjusted the formulation of its bath products in 2018 to "align the product with market trends and customer preferences, not because of product safety issues."

Data from Euromonitor International shows that global producers are expected to purchase 139,350 tons of talc powder this year, a decrease of 0.6% from last year.

Last year, when analyzing and testing 52 cosmetics containing talc, the US Food and Drug Administration found asbestos in 9 products. At present, all related products are voluntarily recalled. The Canadian government is currently considering policies to prohibit or restrict the use of talc in certain Canadian products.